Former Haryana chief minister and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) supremo Om Prakash Chautala died at his residence in Gurugram on Friday evening. He was 89 years old. Chautala was the chief minister of Haryana for a record five times and was the son of former prime minister Devi Lal. Chautala’s last rites will be performed at Teja Kheda in Sirsa district on Saturday evening, family sources said. His body will be kept for public viewing from 8 am to 2 pm. Chautala is survived by his two sons Ajay Singh Chautala and Abhay Singh Chautala and three daughters. Abhay was earlier a pioneer of resistance in the Haryana party. His son Arjun Chautala is currently an MLA from Rania assembly constituency in Haryana. Ajay Chautala’s son Dushyant Chautala was the appointed chief minister of Haryana during the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP-JJP coalition government. INLD spokesperson Rakesh Sihag told The Indian Express that the former chief minister was feeling fine in the morning.
“However, he died of a heart attack as he was having hiccups some time back and breathed his last,” Sihag said. Chautala was convicted in a corruption case related to the nomination matter in 2013 and was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment. His elder son Ajay Chautala was also among the 55 people who were charged in the case. The conviction was a huge blow to his political career as he could not challenge the verdicts after the verdict. Chautala was released from Tihar Jail in July 2021. Since his release, he took the lead in forming a third front in the country by breaking away from the Rashtriya Janata Dal. As part of his efforts, he met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and former UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2021. Present at Chautala’s rally in Fatehabad in September 2022 were Nitish Kumar, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, Akali Dal’s Sukhbir Singh Badal, RJD leader and then Bihar CM Tejashwi Yadav, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Shiv Sena MP Arvind Sawant.
