Jaya at 16:01, 19 February 2026

2026-02-19T16:01:40Z

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{{other uses|Bhajan Lal (disambiguation) }}
{{Short description|6th Chief Minister of Haryana}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Bhajan Lal
| native_name =
| native_name_lang = hi
| image = Bhajan Lal Bishnoi.jpg
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|10|6|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Bahawalpur district|Kotwali]], [[Bahawalpur (princely state)|Bahawalpur State]], [[British India]] (now in [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]], [[Pakistan]])
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|06|03|1930|10|6|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Hisar, Haryana]], [[India]]
| otherparty = [[Indian National Congress]] (1968-77 & 1979–96) [[Janata Party]] (1977–79
) | party=[[Haryana Janhit Congress]]
| spouse = Jasmadevi Bishnoi
| children = [[Chander Mohan Bishnoi]] [[Kuldeep Bishnoi]] Roshni Bishnoi
| office = 6th [[List of chief ministers of Haryana|Chief Minister of Haryana]]
| term_start = 23 June 1991
| term_end = 11 May 1996
| predecessor = [[Om Prakash Chautala]]
| successor = [[Bansi Lal]]
| term_start1 = 29 June 1979
| term_end1 = 5 July 1986
| predecessor1 = [[Chaudhary Devi Lal]]
| successor1 = [[Bansi Lal]]
| office3 = [[Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha]]
| term_start3 = 2 aug 1986
| term_end3 = 27 nov 1989
| constituency3 = [[Haryana]]
| office4 = [[Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha]]
| term_start4 = 16 May 2009
| term_end4 = 3 June 2011
| predecessor4 = [[Jai Parkash]]
| successor4 = [[Kuldeep Bishnoi]]
| constituency4 = [[Hisar (Lok Sabha constituency)|Hisar]]
| term_start5 = 10 March 1998
| term_end5 = 26 April 1999
| predecessor5 = [[Ishwar Dayal Swami]]
| successor5 = [[Ishwar Dayal Swami]]
| constituency5 = [[Karnal (Lok Sabha constituency)|Karnal]]
| term_start6 = 2 December 1989
| term_end6 = 13 March 1991
| predecessor6 = [[Chaudhary Khurshid Ahmed|Khurshid Ahmed]]
| successor6 = [[Avtar Singh Bhadana]]
| constituency6 = [[Faridabad Lok Sabha constituency|Faridabad]]
| office7 = [[Member of the Legislative Assembly (India)|Member of the ]][[Haryana Legislative Assembly]]
| term7 = 1968-1987 and 1991-1998 and 2000-2009
| constituency7 = [[Adampur, Haryana Assembly constituency|Adampur]]
| predecessor7 = H. Singh
| successor7 = [[Kuldeep Bishnoi]]
| caption = Bhajan Lal in 1989
}}

'''Bhajan Lal''' (6 October 1930 – 3 June 2011) was a politician and three-time [[chief minister]] of the [[India]]n state of [[Haryana]]. He became the Chief Minister for the first time in 1979, was re-elected in 1982, and became the chief minister for the third time by winning the [[1991 Haryana Legislative Assembly election|elections in 1991]]. He also served as the [[Minister of Agriculture (India)|Minister of Agriculture]] and the [[Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change|Minister of Environment and Forests]] in the [[Second Rajiv Gandhi ministry|Rajiv Gandhi government]].

==Early life==
Bhajan Lal was born in a [[Bishnoi]] family<ref>{{cite news|title=Will Caste Politics Overturn BJP's Anti-incumbency in Haryana? |date=19 September 2024 |website=The Wire |url=https://m.thewire.in/author/Aamir-Shakil}}</ref> on 6 October 1930 in the Koranwali village of [[British Raj|British India]]'s [[Bahawalpur (princely state)|Bahawalpur]] princely state in modern-day Pakistan. He received his formal education in [[Bahawalnagar]]. Lal lived under difficult circumstances and had to sell his wares on a cycle to make a living.<ref name="NDTV">{{cite news |title=Former Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal dies of heart attack |url=http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/former-haryana-chief-minister-bhajan-lal-dies-of-heart-attack-457534 |access-date=18 April 2016 |work=[[NDTV]] |agency=[[Press Trust of India]]|date=3 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418101911/http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/former-haryana-chief-minister-bhajan-lal-dies-of-heart-attack-457534 |archive-date=18 April 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Haryana Vidhan Sabha: Who's who: 2000 |url=http://www.hryvidhansabhahistory.com/who/2000.pdf |publisher=[[Government of Haryana]] |access-date=18 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160418094042/http://www.hryvidhansabhahistory.com/who/2000.pdf|archive-date=18 April 2016 |page=40 |url-status=usurped |format=PDF }}</ref> He married Jasma Devi, with whom he had two sons - [[Chander Mohan Bishnoi]] and [[Kuldeep Bishnoi|Kuldip Bishnoi]] and a daughter, Roshni.

Bhajan Lal moved to [[Adampur, Hisar|Adampur]] after [[Partition of India|the Partition]]. At the age of 17 he began buying and selling goods at his village market, he soon started a shop in partnership with Pokhar Mal who was a local trader. Both of them worked as commission agents (intermediaries between the fanner and the wholesaler), this work got him into trouble with the local police. He initially joined politics to protect himself from the police. The police had 12 criminal cases and charges against him, all of which were dropped once he became a MLA.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |date=2022-08-29 |title=Bhajan Lal: The artful manipulator - Special Report News - Issue Date: Jun 30, 1982 |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/special-report/story/19820630-the-amazing-survival-saga-of-haryana-chief-minister-bhajan-lal-771934-2013-10-09 |access-date=2022-08-29 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220829114626/https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/special-report/story/19820630-the-amazing-survival-saga-of-haryana-chief-minister-bhajan-lal-771934-2013-10-09 |archive-date=29 August 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Political career==
Lal started his political career by becoming a village ''[[sarpanch]]'' and later the chairman of the [[panchayat samiti]] of Hisar. He joined the [[Indian National Congress|Congress Party]], and became the president of the Congress Mandal in the region. He was elected to the [[Haryana Legislative Assembly|Haryana Assembly]] for the first time in 1968 after winning the mid-term polls in [[Adampur, Haryana Assembly constituency|Adampur]]. He retained this seat for the remainder of his political career except in 1987 when his wife won the seat.<ref name="NDTV"/>

=== Janata Party ===
In 1977 elections he contested under a [[Janata Party]] ticket and won the elections. Under the new Janata Party government of [[Devi Lal]], Bhajan Lal was given a number of ministries including the ministry of dairy development and animal husbandry, the ministry of labour and employment, and the forests ministry. However in 1979 he defected to the Congress along with a group of [[Member of the Legislative Assembly|MLAs]] thereby toppling the Janata Party government.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Choudhary |first=Ratnadeep |date=2019-06-03 |title=Bhajan Lal, the village sarpanch who rose to become Haryana's powerful CM |url=https://theprint.in/theprint-profile/bhajan-lal-the-village-sarpanch-who-rose-to-become-haryanas-powerful-cm/245053/ |access-date=2022-08-29 |website=ThePrint |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== First and Second Terms as Chief Minister ===
Following his defection to the Congress he became the [[Chief Minister of Haryana]] with a razor thin majority. In 1980 following the victory of [[Indira Gandhi]] led Congress (I) in [[1980 Indian general election|the general elections]], many Janata Party leaders began to defect, by then he was able to get as many as 40 Janata Party MLAs into the Congress and secured a strong majority of 50 MLAs in an assembly of 90 MLAs. He had achieved this despite his rival Devi Lal resorting to guarding his 42 [[Janata Party]] MLAs in a farmhouse with guards armed with submachine guns. He offered the defecting MLAs land, money, positions in state corporations and boards, and cabinet positions to this end he had expanded the number of cabinet ministries to 26 which made every second congress MLA a minister. He also held control over the state's [[Criminal Investigation Department (India)|Criminal Investigation Department]], which he used to his advantage by filing cases against he rivals to pressure them into withdrawing or joining him.<ref name=":0" /> This horse trading during his first term had led to the [[Hindustan Times]] calling him the "master of horse-trading".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-11-15 |title=When the horsetraders got traded |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/when-the-horsetraders-got-traded/story-ERhsM2hxlmzLFjyFWiK1nL.html |access-date=2022-08-29 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en}}</ref>

Bhajan Lal's record on governance and the economy however was seen as poor at the time with state corporations and boards seeing sharp declines in their surpluses and no addition of new electricity generation capacity in the state during his initial years of rule between 1979-1982.<ref name=":0" /> He was [[1982 Haryana Legislative Assembly election|re-elected]] on 23 May 1982 and served until July 1986.{{fact|date=December 2023}}

==== 1987 Elections ====
Although he did not lead the party into the [[1987 Haryana Legislative Assembly election|1987 elections]], the electoral rout of the Congress in that elections resulted in him being slowly sidelined in the party in favour of newer leaders like [[Bhupinder Singh Hooda|Bhupinder Hooda]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Ahuja |first=Rajesh |date=2011-06-03 |title=Bhajan Lal passes away |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/bhajan-lal-passes-away/article2074044.ece |access-date=2022-08-29 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref>

=== Union Minister and National Politics ===
In 1986 following the end of his tenure as Chief Minister, he was made a [[Rajya Sabha]] [[Member of Parliament (India)|MP]], and was appointed as the [[Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change|Union Minister of Environment and Forests]] under the [[Second Rajiv Gandhi ministry|Rajiv Gandhi government]]. In 1988 he was made the [[Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare|Union Minister of Agriculture]]. In 1989 he was elected to the [[Lok Sabha]] after winning in the constituency of [[Faridabad Lok Sabha constituency|Faridabad]] by defeating [[Chaudhary Khurshid Ahmed|Khurshid Ahmed]] from the [[Janata Party]].<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-29 |title=Members : Lok Sabha |url=http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/members/ArchiveMemberBioprofile.aspx?mpsno=3247&lastls=15 |access-date=2022-08-29 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220829120213/http://164.100.47.194/loksabha/members/ArchiveMemberBioprofile.aspx?mpsno=3247&lastls=15 |archive-date=29 August 2022 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Third Term as Chief Minister ===
He resigned from the Lok Sabha and contested the [[1991 Haryana Legislative Assembly election|Haryana Assembly elections held in 1991]] from Adampur, Congress won the elections and he was made the chief minister for the third time. However, in the [[1996 Haryana Legislative Assembly election|1996 elections]] the Congress suffered a major defeat, and Bhajan Lal never became a chief minister following that.<ref name=":1" />

=== Leaving the Congress ===
The victory of the [[Indian National Congress]] in Haryana's 2005 elections caused a major rift in its state unit, as it opted to make [[Bhupinder Hooda]], a Jat, the Chief Minister instead of Lal.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bhajan Lal makes a turnaround|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/03/06/stories/2005030603290800.htm|access-date=3 November 2010|newspaper=The Hindu|date=6 March 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819025821/http://www.hinduonnet.com/2005/03/06/stories/2005030603290800.htm|archive-date=19 August 2010|url-status=usurped}}</ref> In 2007, Lal officially announced he would form a new party, called the [[Haryana Janhit Congress]]. The key event that brought this about was the suspension of his son [[Kuldeep Bishnoi]] from the Indian National Congress, for criticizing the party's central leaders.<ref>{{cite news|title=Bhajan Plans New Party|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Bhajan_plans_new_party/articleshow/1759573.cms|access-date=3 November 2010|newspaper=The Times of India|date=14 March 2007}}</ref>

===2009 Lok Sabha Elections===

He fought the 2009 Lok Sabha election despite being 79 years old at the time, stating that he was still "young enough to win elections".<ref>{{Cite web |date=3 May 2009 |title=I am young enough to win polls: Bhajan Lal |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/i-am-young-enough-to-win-polls-bhajan-lal/articleshow/4478133.cms |access-date=2022-08-29 |website=The Times of India |language=en}}</ref> He fought from [[Hissar (Lok Sabha constituency)|Hissar]] and defeated [[Sampat Singh]], [[Indian National Lok Dal|INLD]] leader by 6983 votes, [[Jai Parkash|Jai parkash]] of Congress came at third position in a high-profile battle.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/newswire/story/sampat-singh-quits-inld/662703|title=Sampat Singh Quits INLD|website=Outlook (India)|access-date=2020-01-05}}</ref>

==Death==
Bhajan Lal died on 3 June 2011 in [[Hisar (city)|Hisar]] following a [[heart attack]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Bhajan Lal passes away |url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/article2074044.ece|access-date=4 June 2011|newspaper=The Hindu|date=3 June 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Bhajan Lal, 80, dies of heart attack |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Bhajan-Lal-80-dies-of-heart-attack/articleshow/8720275.cms|access-date=4 June 2011|newspaper=The Times of India|date=3 June 2011}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Aaya Ram Gaya Ram]]
* [[Political families of Haryana|Dynastic politics of Haryana]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{S-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box |title=[[Chief Minister of Haryana]] | before=[[Chaudhary Devi Lal]]| after=[[Bansi Lal|Chaudhary Bansi Lal]] | years=1979–1985}}
{{succession box |title=Chief Minister of Haryana | before=[[Om Prakash Chautala]]| after=[[Bansi Lal|Chaudhary Bansi Lal]] | years=1991–1996}}
{{s-end}}

{{15th LS members from Haryana}}
{{Chief Ministers of Haryana}}
{{Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (India)}}
{{Haryana}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lal, Bhajan}}
[[Category:People from Panchkula]]
[[Category:Chief ministers of Haryana]]
[[Category:India MPs 2009–2014]]
[[Category:1930 births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:India MPs 1989–1991]]
[[Category:India MPs 1998–1999]]
[[Category:People from Bahawalpur District]]
[[Category:Lok Sabha members from Haryana]]
[[Category:Chief ministers from Indian National Congress]]
[[Category:Agriculture ministers of India]]
[[Category:Members of the Cabinet of India]]
[[Category:Chief ministers from Janata Party]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 1972–1977]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 1977–1982]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 1982–1987]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 1987–1991]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 1991–1996]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 1996–2000]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 2000–2005]]
[[Category:Haryana Janhit Congress politicians]]
[[Category:Indian National Congress politicians from Haryana]]
[[Category:Politicians from Faridabad]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 2005–2009]]
[[Category:Haryana MLAs 1968–1972]]
[[Category:Presidents of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee]]

Bhajan Lal - Revision history

Jaya at 16:01, 19 February 2026