Gurugram: Fourteen years after his demise on 3 June 2011, the legacy of Bhajan Lal, often dubbed the promoter of the ‘Aya Ram Gaya Ram’ politics of Haryana, continues to intrigue and define the state’s political landscape.
On his 14th death anniversary, ThePrint looks back at a leader who is known as much for his political manoeuvring as he is for his generosity, and sometimes controversial patronage.
Born on 6 October, 1930, in Bahawalpur in undivided Punjab, Bhajan Lal and his family settled in Adampur, Hisar, after the Partition. His journey from a cloth merchant to a towering political figure, eventually serving as Haryana’s Chief Minister for nearly 11 years and nine months, is a testament to his shrewd understanding of power.
From business to politics: The humble beginnings
Bhajan Lal’s foray into politics, as he himself once revealed, was initially driven by the desire to expand his business. Starting with a cloth business in 1950, he later ventured into the grain markets before striking gold with ghee trading in 1965.
His political career began modestly in 1960 as a village sarpanch in Adampur, followed by a victory in the Block Samiti Chairman elections in 1961. His reputation grew, and by 1967, he was vying for a Congress ticket. Lady luck smiled when the sitting MLA from Adampur, Hari Singh Dabra, defected, paving the way for Bhajan Lal to get a ticket and win the Adampur seat in 1968, marking his debut in the state assembly.
The era of defections: A man who guarded MLAs with a gun
Bhajan Lal was initially a staunch loyalist of the then-CM Chaudhary Bansi Lal. After becoming an MLA in 1968, he became the chairman of the Haryana Marketing Board and then the agriculture minister in 1970. In his book, Politics of Chaudhar, political analyst Dr Satish Tyagi recounts an interesting anecdote from this period. In 1972, Bhajan Lal was seen guarding the MLA hostel with a double-barrel gun slung over his shoulder, a clear signal of his determination to prevent defections.
But the master of defections himself wasn’t immune to change. After the Emergency, when the Janata Party formed the government at the Centre in 1977, Bhajan Lal joined Babu Jagjivan Ram’s ‘Congress for Democracy’, which later merged with the Janata Party.
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The overnight coup: Toppling Devi Lal’s government
Perhaps the most iconic tale of Bhajan Lal’s political astuteness is the overnight toppling of Devi Lal’s Janata Party government in 1979.
Veteran journalist Pawan Kumar Bansal recounts that Devi Lal, then CM, was on a tour of Hisar and Sirsa when he learned that four of his ministers, including Dairy Minister Bhajan Lal, had rebelled. Devi Lal immediately rounded up 42 MLAs and confined them in his fortified farmhouse in Teja Kheda, Sirsa, reportedly guarding them with a gun.
Bhajan Lal, needing two more MLAs for his coup, found his opportunity when two Devi Lal loyalists left the ‘fortress’—one for a wedding and the other to tend to a sick uncle. “Sensing a trap, Devi Lal rushed to the wedding, only to find Bhajan Lal already there. It was through family members visiting the confined MLAs that Bhajan Lal had managed to send his messages, eventually winning over the two crucial legislators,” Bansal told ThePrint.
On 26 June, 1979, the day Devi Lal was to prove his majority, he resigned, making Bhajan Lal the Chief Minister for the first time.
The Great Crossover
The most audacious display of Bhajan Lal’s political wizardry came in January 1980. With Indira Gandhi’s thumping return to power at the Centre, Bhajan Lal, then a Janata Party CM, feared the dismissal of his government, a common practice after the Janata Party had done the same to Congress governments post-Emergency.
Days later, on 22 January 1980, in an unprecedented move in Indian political history, the entire Janata Party cabinet in Haryana switched allegiance overnight, becoming a Congress government, with Bhajan Lal retaining his chief minister’s chair.
The plot king: A generous giver
Beyond his political manoeuvring, Bhajan Lal was renowned for his generosity, particularly when it came to the CM’s discretionary quota of plots from the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), now rechristened the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP).
Veteran journalist Pawan Kumar Bansal, speaking to ThePrint, revealed how Bhajan Lal became famous for distributing HUDA plots generously to politicians, bureaucrats, police officers, judges, journalists, and even his liftman and a peon at the All India Congress Committee office.
In 1996, he even gave a plot in Panchkula to Bollywood diva Madhuri Dixit from his discretionary quota, which the actor later sold in 2019.
Bansal characterised him as a “PhD in defection” and a “cordial” leader who rarely lost his temper. He was known to keep officers happy, doing both legitimate and illegitimate work, but always ensuring the files were above board.
“Once when he took a lift in the secretariat, he asked the liftman where he lived. He next asked him if he owned a house. When the liftman replied in the negative, he told an officer accompanying him to allot a HUDA residential plot to him from the CM’s discretionary quota. After thinking for a while, Bhajan Lal told the officer that the liftman may not be able to pay the 10 percent earnest money for the plot. So I will pay for him, he said” revealed Bansal.
Further political sojourns
Bhajan Lal’s political journey saw him return as CM in 1982, a controversial move where he took oath even as Devi Lal was summoned by the Governor to prove his majority. This led to a furious Devi Lal allegedly slapping Governor Tapase. Bhajan Lal went on to prove his majority with 57 MLAs, including 20 defectors from opposition parties.
He served as chief minister for a third time in 1991, capitalising on the infighting within the Devi Lal family and the collapse of the Chautala government. In 1986, when he was called to the Centre by Rajiv Gandhi to serve as Union Minister for Environment and Forests, he ensured his traditional Adampur seat remained with his family by fielding his wife, Jasma Devi, who won in 1987, extending the Bishnoi family’s reign in the constituency.
His election victories and later years
After beginning his political career in 1961, when he secured the block samiti chairman position in Adampur, Bhajan Lal’s first major legislative win came in 1968 when he won the Adampur seat in the Haryana Legislative Assembly on a Congress ticket. He retained Adampur in subsequent assembly elections in 1972, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1991, 1996, 2000, and 2005, totalling 9 assembly election victories.
Bhajan Lal was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Faridabad Parliamentary seat in 1989, from Karnal Lok Sabha seat in 1998, and the Hisar Lok Sabha seat in 2009. His only electoral defeat was to BJP’s ID Swami from Karnal Lok Sabha seat in 1999 whom he had defeated a year earlier.
His later years, however, were marked by personal and political setbacks. In 2005, despite Congress winning a massive majority under his informal leadership, Bhupinder Singh Hooda was chosen as CM, leaving Bhajan Lal out in the cold.
This led to a bitter feud, culminating in Bhajan Lal leaving Congress in 2007 to form his own party, the Haryana Janhit Congress (HJC), with his younger son Kuldeep Bishnoi.
His elder son, Chander Mohan, then Deputy CM in the Hooda government, courted controversy in 2008 by converting to Islam and marrying Anuradha Bali (who became Fiza). This deeply angered Bhajan Lal, who disinherited Chander Mohan from his property. Fiza later died under mysterious circumstances in 2012.
Bhajan Lal fought his last election in 2009, winning the Hisar Lok Sabha seat on an HJC ticket. The same year, the HJC emerged as a kingmaker in the state assembly elections, but Hooda once again outmaneuvered Bhajan Lal, engineering the defection of five of the six HJC MLAs to form the government leaving Kuldeep Bishnoi the lone HJC MLA.
Bhajan Lal’s legacy is that of a political survivor, a master strategist, and a man who understood the art of power play like few others. He remains a figure whose influence on Haryana politics, despite his absence, continues to be felt and discussed.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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