History headline: Gaya Lal, and Haryana art of defection | The Indian Express

History headline: Gaya Lal, and Haryana art of defection | The Indian Express

Written by Pradeep Kaushal |Updated: August 4, 2019 12:51:22 am

History headline: Gaya Lal, and Haryana art of defection

For Haryana, carved out of Punjab on November 1, 1966, it was its first Assembly election. While the Congress won, it was with a thin majority of 48 out of 81 seats.

Bhajan Lal with Indira Gandhi, after turning his Janata Party govt wholescale into a Congress govt, on Jan 22, 1980, taking along 37 MLAs. Express Archives

WHILE the large-scale crossing over by MLAs resulted in state governments falling in Karnataka and Goa recently, they were still no match for what a Haryana legislator managed in 1967, back when shadows had just started appearing over Indian democracy’s golden halo. In the process, Gaya Lal also lent the term ‘Aya Ram, Gaya Ram’ to the country’s political lexicon.