V. P. Singh

V. P. Singh Biography

V. P. Singh was born on 25^th June 1931 at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. He was the 7^th Prime Minister of India and the 41^st Raja Bahadur of Manda. He was born in the Rajput Gaharwar (Rathore) zamindar family of Manda. He was born to Raja Bhagwati Prasad Singh of Daiya. Then in 1936, he was adopted by Raja Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh of Manda. He studied at Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun. He was married to Rani Sita Kumari. He entered into the local politics in Allahabad at the period of Nehru. 

He joined All India Congress Committee as a member in 1969. He served as a Member of Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh from 1969 to 1971. Then he was elected as a Member of Parliament under Lok Sabha from 1971 to 1974. Later he served as a Union Deputy Minister of Commerce between 1974 and 1976 and also served as Union state Minister of Commerce from 1976 to 1977. In 1980, Indira Gandhi appointed him as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.  In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi invited him and appointed him as a Finance Minster. During that period, he took strict action to reduce the smuggling of gold. Some of his mistakes led to his dismissal from the Cabinet by Rajiv Gandhi.

V. P. Singh established an opposition party in 1987 with the support of Arun Nehru and Arif Mohamed Khan and it was called as Jan Morcha. Once again he was elected for Lok Shaba in Allahabad Constituency. In 1988, Jan Morcha, Janata Party, Lok Dal and Congress (S) were merged into a new party named Janata Dal. They all joined together and opposed Rajiv Gandhi’s government. He was appointed as a President of the party. Later all the regional parties like DMK, TDP and AGP joined with him and it was renamed as National Front (India). N. T. Rama Rao became the President and Singh became the convener of the party.

In 1989 election, the National Front joined hands with the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Left Front. Both the parties supported him from outside to form the government. On 1^st December, 1989 V. P. Singh Became the 7^th Prime Minister of India.  He served till 10^th November 1990. As a prime Minister, he made many changes in the government polices and faced lot of troubles. So within a short period he had to step down from the post of Prime Minister. He again worked to re-launch his Jan Morcha Party. But during this period he became sick due to cancer. He died on 27^th November 2008 at New Delhi in his 77^th age. 

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Updated: October 18, 2017