Chaudhary Charan Singh was born on 23 December 1902 in a Jat family in Noorpur village of the then Meerut district. his/her father Mir Singh was a farmer. Talking about education, Chaudhary Charan Singh had obtained B.Sc., MA in History and LLB degrees. he/she belonged to a revolutionary family. he/she was the ancestor of Raja Nahar Singh, a prominent leader of the freedom struggle of 1857. Chaudhary Charan Singh also took part in the freedom movement and also went to jail several times. he/she was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1937 at the age of just 34 from Chhaprauli seat of Baghpat in the then United Province (now UP). he/she left a unique mark in the politics of the country. he/she was the Chief Minister of UP twice, Home Minister at the Center and later also became the Prime Minister. he/she died on 29 May 1987.
Started politics from Congress
In the initial years after independence, he/she was counted among the veteran leaders of Congress in Uttar Pradesh. In the 50s and during the government of the then UP CM Govind Ballabh Pant, Chaudhary Charan Singh, first as Parliamentary Secretary and later as Revenue Minister, drafted important bills related to land reforms which later became laws. Since then his/her image became that of a farmer-friendly leader. However, in 1967, he/she left the Congress and formed his/her own party named Bharatiya Kranti Dal.
First non-Congress Chief Minister of UP
Chaudhary Charan Singh led the first non-Congress government in Uttar Pradesh. What happened was that in 1967, Chandra Bhanu Gupta of Congress was the Chief Minister of UP. Chaudhary Charan Singh was demanding inclusion of some of his/her prominent leaders in the cabinet and removal of some from the post of ministers. When Gupta did not agree, Charan Singh along with 16 other MLAs rebelled against the Congress. he/she joined hands with the opposition. An alliance of Jan Sangh, Left and other non-Congress parties was formed – United Legislative Party. On 4 April 1967, Chaudhary Charan Singh became the Chief Minister of UP. However, he/she could not win over the coalition parties and had to resign from the post on 25 February 1968. When elections were held, Congress government was formed. After the split in Congress on 10 February 1970, Chandra Bhanu Gupta resigned from the post of CM and Chaudhary Charan Singh became the Chief Minister for the second time. This time with the support of Indira Gandhi’s Congress (R). But the government could last only for 6 months because Congress (R) withdrew its support.
Chaudhary Charan Singh ordered the arrest of Indira Gandhi
In 1975, Indira Gandhi imposed emergency on the country and all the opposition leaders were put in jail. Chaudhary Charan Singh also remained in jail for a year. But after the Emergency, Congress suffered a crushing defeat in the 1977 elections. The reason was the unification of all the major opposition parties including Jan Sangh, Communists against Congress under the banner of ‘Janata Party’. For the first time, a non-Congress government was formed at the Center under the leadership of Morar ji Desai. Chaudhary Charan Singh became the Union Home Minister.
Morar ji Desai government started reversing important decisions taken by Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. Chaudhary Charan Singh ordered the arrest of Indira Gandhi on corruption charges. On 3 October 1977, Gandhi was dramatically arrested at his/her residence at 12 Willingdon Crescent. However, the very next day on October 4, the court granted bail to Indira Gandhi saying that there was no evidence to support her arrest.
Became Prime Minister relying on Congress but could not even face Parliament as PM
Coincidentally, Indira Gandhi, who was arrested by Chaudhary Charan Singh when he/she was the Home Minister, became the Prime Minister after about two years with the support of her own party. This story is also no less interesting. The Morarji Desai government, which came into existence due to a mismatched alliance, ultimately fell due to contradictions in the alliance. After that Chaudhary Charan Singh staked claim to form the government. Congress announced its support from outside.
On 28 July 1979, Chaudhary Charan Singh took oath as Prime Minister. On August 15, he/she also gave a speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort, but as PM, he/she could never face the Parliament session because he/she resigned before the confidence motion could be brought in the Lok Sabha. The reason was that Congress deceived him/her and announced withdrawal of support from the government just before the floor test. After being swindled by Congress, Choudhary had no option but to resign. In this way, Chaudhary Charan Singh became the first and the first Prime Minister in the history of India who never saw a Parliament session as a PM. After his/her resignation, the President ordered the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and Choudhary remained the acting Prime Minister until the elections. After this episode, Chaudhary Charan Singh’s image took a hit and critics started projecting him/her as an ‘opportunist’ and ‘power-hungry’ leader.
Resigned due to ‘blackmailing’ of Indira Gandhi!
Chaudhary Charan Singh became Prime Minister with the external support of the Congress but was forced to resign before the trust vote could be presented. After all, why did Congress announce withdrawal of support? Singh later revealed this in an interview given to Udayan Sharma of ‘Sunday’ magazine. In the interview, Chaudhary Charan Singh told that he/she could not tolerate the politics of blackmail. he/she claimed that Indira Gandhi wanted the cases registered against her son Sanjay Gandhi to be withdrawn. he/she said that after the oath taking ceremony, he/she started receiving messages from Indira’s close associates asking him/her to withdraw the cases against Sanjay Gandhi otherwise Congress will not support him/her in the floor test on August 20. But he/she was not ready for this. After this, Congress announced withdrawal of support from the government even before the majority test and Singh had to resign from the post of PM. In the interview, he/she said that how could it have been possible for him/her to withdraw the cases against those people who had committed grave atrocities during the Emergency. I did not accept the politics of blackmail.
Lok Dal formed after resignation from the post of PM
After resigning from the post of PM, Chaudhary Charan Singh formed Lok Dal on 26 September 1979. This party was formed by the merger of Janata Party (Secular), Socialist Party and Orissa Janata Party and Choudhary Saheb was elected its president. Raj Narayan was elected working president of Lok Dal. Lok Dal broke after just 3 years and stalwarts like Karpoori Thakur, George Fernandez, Devi Lal, Biju Patnaik separated from the party and formed a separate faction. In 1984, Chaudhary Charan Singh merged Lok Dal and some other parties and formed a separate party named Dalit Mazdoor Kisan Party. Later its name was again changed to Lok Dal.
