CHANDIGARH: The famous phrase “Aya Ram Gaya Ram” widely used across the country for politicians switching loyalties has its origin from Haryana and it was because of one person, ‘Gaya Lal,’ whose son Udai Bhan Singh is chief of Congress’ Haryana unit at present. It was actually Gurgaon MP Rao Inderjit Singh’s father and former Haryana CM, Rao Birender Singh who coined this term 57 years ago in 1967.
Haryana had its first elections for state assembly in 1967 and Congress dissident Gaya Lal had contested and won as an Independent candidate from Hasanpur (reserved), now Hodal seat in Faridabad.In that election, a total of 16 independent candidates had won. At that time, the United Front as well as the Congress were eying support of Independent MLAs to form government.
It was at that point Gaya Lal first joined the United Front but after a while, his heart changed, and he joined Congress. Again, within a few hours, he re-joined the United Front. With this, he switched his loyalty thrice in one day.
On Gaya Lal switching his loyalty for the third time, Rao Birender Singh, former Haryana CM (March 24, 1967 to Nov 2, 1967) who was heading United Front, presented him before the media in Chandigarh and said: “Jo Gaya Ram The, Wo Aaya Ram hao Gaye Hain” (The person who had left earlier has come back). It was after Rao Birender Singh’s announcement the phrase “Aya Ram Gaya Ram” became popular in politics, and was used for turncoats.
Although several other legislators or politicians in Haryana changed their loyalties many times in their political career until the anti-defection law came into force, the maxim “Aya Ram Gaya Ram” is still linked with Gaya Lal. In 1972, Gaya Lal joined Arya Sabha and then jumped to Charan Singh’s Bhartiya Lok Dal. He also joined Janata party before contesting his last assembly election in 1982 as an independent candidate.
After 1967 polls, Gaya Lal was elected again in 1977 for one more time. He died in 2009.
Interestingly, his son Udai Bhan, who is currently head of Haryana PCC, also faced charges under the anti-defection law for allegedly joining the Congress in 2004. At that time, he was an independent MLA from Hasanpur seat, having been elected in the 2000 state assembly elections.
During the poll campaign, Ashok Tanwar switched over to the Congress hours after being part of a BJP poll rally.
