Udai Bhan (born 2 November 1955) is an Indian politician and a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

. He is the incumbent president of the

Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee The Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee or (HPCC or Haryana PCC) is the state unit of the Indian National Congress (INC) in the state of Haryana, India. It is responsible for organizing and coordinating the party's activities and campaigns within ...

. He is former four-time elected

Member of Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

Haryana's Legislative Assembly (MLA). He represented Haryana's Hodal constituency from 2014 to 2019. He previously also represented the former constituency of

Hassanpur Hassanpur is a town (MC) in Palwal district in the Indian state of Haryana. Education Schools *Aadrash Vidya Mandir Sr Secondary School *B.L. Public senior secondary School *Brij Mandal Senior secondary school *Govt High Senior secondary sc ...

in 1987, 2000 and 2005.

Early life

Udai Bhan was born to

Gaya Lal Gaya Lal was an Indian politician and member of the Indian National Congress. Lal was a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly from the Hassanpur constituency (now Hodal) in the Palwal district. ''Aaya Ram Gaya Ram'' incident Gaya Lal ...

in the modern-day

Palwal district Palwal district was created on 15 August 2008. It is the 21st district of Haryana state in Delhi NCR region of northern India. Palwal City is the headquarters of the district. It is part of the Braj region. The city is situated from Delhi, ...

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

. His father was elected as a Member of the

Haryana Legislative Assembly The Haryana Legislative Assembly (ISO: ''Hariyāṇā Vidhāna Sabhā'') is the unicameral legislature of the Indian state of Haryana. The seating of the assembly is at Chandigarh, the capital of the state. There are seats in the house fil ...

from the Hassanpur constituency multiple times. In 1967, Udai Bhan's father, Gaya Lal, changed parties four times within one day. He was elected an independent candidate but he joined the

. Then he switched to the

United Front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

, then back to Congress, and then within nine hours back to United Front again. When Gaya Lal decided to quit the United Front and join the Congress, then Congress leader Rao Birender Singh brought him to

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

to attend a press conference. Rao Birender Singh declared "

Aaya Ram Gaya Ram ''Aaya Ram Gaya Ram'' () is a Hindi expression referring to the practice of turncoating, or switching parties in the context of a legislative body. The term originated in 1967 in Haryana when the Member of the Legislative Assembly Gaya Lal sh ...

", based upon his name Gaya Lal. The term of "

" became a well known expression in national Indian politics and is used within all regions of India to describe the act of frequent political defection. It is due to Gaya Lal's infamous incident that this term became prominent in the political vocabulary of India. In 1985, the

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

government amended the constitution to prevent such incidents under the Anti-defection law. Ch. Udai Bhan's grandfather Dharam Singh was also a noted politician and was elected as the Chairman of Hodal Municipal Corporation several times between 1927 and 1942.

Political career

Udai Bhan fought and won his first assembly election from Hassanpur in 1987 as a candidate of

Lok Dal Lokdal or Lok Dal is an Indian political party based on agriculture policies, founded by former Prime Minister Charan Singh. It was founded on 26 September 1979 by merging Janata Party (Secular), Socialist Party (Limaye) and Orissa Janata Party ...

under the leadership of Chaudhary

Devi Lal Devi Lal (25 September 1914 – 6 April 2001) was an Indian statesman and politician who briefly served as the deputy prime minister of India from 1990 to 1991 and previously from 1989 to 1990. Lal emerged as a prominent advocate for rural and ...

and won the seat twice thereafter — in 2000 as an Independent candidate and later in 2005 as a Congress candidate. Udai Bhan was the chairman of the Krishak Bharati Cooperative (KRIBHCO) between 1989 and 1993 and joined the Congress in 1997. Bhan won the Hodal (reserved) seat as a Congress candidate in 2014 but lost in the last assembly election to the BJP's Jagdish Nayar with a very small margin of 3,387 votes. He actively supported

2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest The 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest was a protest against three farm acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. The acts, often called the Farm Bills, had been described as "anti-farmer laws" by many farmer unions, ...

which was a protest against three farm acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020. On 19 November 2021, the union government decided to repeal the bills, 4and both houses of Parliament passed the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 on 29 November. In April 2022 Udai Bhan was appointed as the new State President of Haryana unit of

Personal life

Udai Bhan is married to Shakuntala Devi and they have three sons and one daughter. Bhan's younger son Raj Gopal and his youngest son Devesh Kumar have also been in public life and been associated with the Congress. Udai Bhan's younger son Raj Gopal served as chairman, Municipal Council, Hodal, from 2016 to 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhan, Udai 1955 births Living people Haryana MLAs 2005–2009 Haryana MLAs 2014–2019 Indian National Congress politicians from Haryana Presidents of Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee