Devi Lal was born on 25 September 1914 in Teja Khera village of Sirsa district in present-day Haryana.

[2][3][better source needed] His son Om Prakash Chautala has also served as Haryana's chief minister four times.

In January 1940, Sahib Ram courted arrest as a satyagrahi in the presence of Lal and over ten thousand people.

[citation needed] Lal was arrested on 5 October 1942 and kept in jail for two years for taking part in the 1942 Quit India movement.

He, along with Lajpat Rai Alakhpura, made efforts to woo both Sahib Ram and Lal to desert Congress and join the Unionist Party.

After some time, then chief minister, Gopi Chand Bhargava, made an agreement and the Muzzara Act was amended.

In the 1987 state elections, the alliance led by Lal won a record victory winning 85 seats in the 90 member house.

In the 1989 parliamentary election, he was simultaneously elected, both from Sikar, Rajasthan and Rohtak, Haryana.On 1 December 1989, VP Singh nominated Devi Lal for the post of Prime Minister in the middle house of Parliament, despite Singh himself being nominated as a pure alternative prime ministerial candidate.

VP Singh was working honestly in many positions in the Congress and found many allegations of corruption against the government of Rajiv Gandhi.

After declaring Singh as a qualified candidate for Prime Minister, Devi Lal walked out of the assembly and refused to participate in the cabinet.

He became deputy prime minister of the country from 1989 to 1991 in the non-Congress governments of VP Singh and Chandra Shekhar[1] He was elected to Rajya Sabha in August 1998.

"Kisan Ghat" is the samadhi of another popular leader of the farmers, Charan Singh, the fifth Prime Minister of India.