This is about 1989-90. In December 1989, VP Singh’s government was formed at the centre. Chaudhary Devi Lal resigned from the post of Chief Minister of Haryana and was made Deputy Prime Minister in that government. Then Tau Devi Lal made his son Om Prakash Chautala the Chief Minister of Haryana. At that time Devi Lal was an MLA from Meham. After winning the Lok Sabha elections, he resigned from the Meham seat as well. Devi Lal won the assembly elections from Meham in 1982, 1985 and 1987. After his resignation, when by-elections were to be held on the Meham seat in 1990, Om Prakash Chautala was made the candidate from the Janata Dal but the Khap Panchayat there started opposing it.
The Khap Panchayat of 32 communities of Meham decided that Anand Singh Dangi, Devi Lal’s trusted man and in-charge of every election, should be fielded. An army of about 2500 farmers from Meham reached New Delhi to inform Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal about this and camped in Haryana Bhawan. Then Devi Lal refused to listen to them and said that he did not accept this as a decision of the Khap. Devi Lal said that he would come to Meham and discuss this issue.
I have come to remove the misconception of Maham
When Devi Lal reached Meham, it was said that he had come to remove the misconceptions of Meham. This hurt the Panchayat. Neither did Devi Lal listen to the Khap nor did the Khap listen to the Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal. The Khap fielded Anand Singh Dangi as an independent candidate. At that time, Dangi was the Chairman of the Haryana Subordinate Service Selection Commission. He had got this post also due to the blessings of Devi Lal. But now there was a rift between the two. On one side there was Devi Lal’s love for his son and on the other side there was the question of the turban of the Khap Panchayat.
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By-elections were held in Meham on 27 February 1990. There was massive violence in that election. There was rigging and booth capturing in the elections. In an interview, Anand Singh Dangi himself said that the then DSP was caught red-handed while capturing a booth. Since it was the election of the Chief Minister of a state, the media of the country and abroad was keeping an eye on this by-election. The matter of electoral rigging was prominently published in the national media, after which the Election Commission ordered re-polls on eight seats.
CM’s son accused of booth capturing
When re-elections were held on eight seats, violence broke out again. It is said that on one hand Dangi himself perpetrated the violence, while on the other hand, booth capturing and bloodshed took place at the behest of the Chief Minister’s son Abhay Singh Chautala. Allegations were made that Chautala misused the government machinery to win the election, so the Election Commission finally cancelled these elections. Since Meham is an area of Rohtak near New Delhi, the national media had again camped here.
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21st May was again fixed as the date for the by-election. But a few days before the election, an independent candidate Amrik Singh from Dangi’s village (Madina) was murdered. Singh was fielded by Chautala so that Dangi’s votes would be divided. After this murder, the elections were cancelled but the murder of Amrik Singh led to bloodshed and violence in the area. Dangi was accused of killing Amrik Singh. When the police came to arrest Dangi, his supporters attacked the police. Dangi alleged in an interview that the then SP of Rohtak had fired at him but he escaped. 10 people were killed and many were injured in this violence.
Chautala had to leave the CM’s chair
When the echo of the Meham incident started reverberating across the country, Prime Minister VP Singh discussed the issue with Deputy Prime Minister Devi Lal. He made it a question of his government’s prestige and asked him to get Chautala to resign. After this, Devi Lal became angry with VP Singh but he was forced to get his son to resign. Chautala had to leave the post of Chief Minister after 171 days. In his place, Banarsi Das Gupta was made the new Chief Minister of Haryana on 22 May 1990. However, he too could remain in the post only for 51 days.
Devi Lal and son Chautala both went on foot
It so happened that as soon as his son lost his position, Devi Lal became aggressive against VP Singh. He started feeling insulted. After this, he resigned from the post of Deputy Prime Minister. After this, after a lot of persuasion by the senior leaders of Janata Dal, Devi Lal agreed and withdrew his resignation. On July 12, 1990, a secret meeting was held between VP Singh and Devi Lal in private. On the same day, Banarasi Das Gupta resigned and Chautala was again made the Chief Minister but this time he could remain on the position for only five days because this time VP Singh had removed Devi Lal from his cabinet.
