Om Prakash Chautala, former chief minister of Haryana, passed his Class X examination at age 86.
Eldest and favoured son of former deputy prime minister, Devi Lal, Chautala led a controversy-ridden political life, the high point of which was rampant violence and booth-looting in a by-election he contested from Meham in Haryana in 1990.
Polio-afflicted since childhood, Chautala was a key figure in the Janata-Lok Dal circles and became chief minister of Haryana four times between 1989 and 2005.
He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for involvement in a teachers’ recruitment scam on his watch. It was during his time behind bars in Delhi’s Tihar jail that Chautala resumed study and attempted the Class X examination. He went through with second division grades.
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Diana Spencer, later Princess of Wales, and mother to Princes William and Harry of the House of Windsor, would have turned 60.