Virbhadra Singh

Virbhadra Singh
Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 December 2012
Preceded by	Prem Kumar Dhumal
Constituency	Shimla Rural
In office 8 April 1983 – 5 March 1990
Preceded by	Thakur Ram Lal
Succeeded by	Shanta Kumar
Constituency	Rohru
In office 3 December 1993 – 24 March 1998
Preceded by	Shanta Kumar
Succeeded by	Prem Kumar Dhumal
Constituency	Rohru
In office 6 March 2003 – 30 December 2007
Preceded by	Prem Kumar Dhumal
Succeeded by	Prem Kumar Dhumal
Constituency	Rohru
Member of Parliament Mandi
In office 2009–2012
Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
In office 19 January 2011 – 26 June 2012
Preceded by	Dinsha Patel
Succeeded by	Vilasrao Deshmukh
Minister of Steel
In office 28 May 2009 – 18 January 2011
Preceded by	Ram Vilas Paswan
Succeeded by	Beni Prasad Verma
Minister of State for Industries
In office September 1982 – April 1983
Minister of State for Tourism, Civil Aviation
In office December 1976 – March 1977
Personal details
Born	(1934-06-23) 23 June 1934 Sarahan, Shimla
Nationality	Indian
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse(s)	Pratibha Singh
Residence	Padam Palace, Rampur Bushahr, District Shimla
Religion	Hindu
Signature

Virbhadra Singh (born 23 June 1934) is an Indian politician who has been the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh since 2012. He has previously held several national political offices and previously served as Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh from 1983 to 1990, from 1993 to 1998, and from 2003 to 2007. He was an elected member of Lok Sabha in 1962, 1967, 1972, 1980 and in 2009. He is a member of the Indian National Congress.^[1] His wife Pratibha Singh (born 16 June 1956) is member of Lok Sabha from Mandi.

Personal life

Virbhadra Singh was born on 23 June 1934 at Sarahan, Shimla. His father was Padam Singh.^[1]

Singh was educated at Bishop Cotton School in Simla. Following this, he attended St. Stephen's College, Delhi, from which he obtained a BA Honours degree.^[1]

He married Pratibha Singh in 1985. He has a son and four daughters.^[2]

National politics

Singh gained a seat in the Lok Sabha — which is the lower house of the Parliament of India — in the Indian general elections of 1962. He repeated that success in the elections of 1967 and 1971. He was again elected to the Lok Sabha in 1980 and a further election to that house came in 2009, following an absence from the intervening two Lok Sabhas.^[2] His wife had served a term following her victory in the 2004 elections.^[3]

He was a member of the Indian Delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1976.^[1]

Between 1976 and 1977, Singh held the national office of Deputy Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation in central cabinet. He was Minister of State for Industries between 1980 and 1983.^[2] From May 2009 until January 2011, he held the cabinet post of Minister for Steel. He then became cabinet minister with responsibility for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises,^[2] until resigning from office in June 2012.^[4]

State politics

Aside from his role in national politics, Singh has also been elected on seven occasions to the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly.^[2] The first occasion was in a by-election in October 1983, when he was returned for the Jubbal-Kotkhai constituency.^{[citation needed]} He won that seat again in the 1985 elections.^{[citation needed]} Thereafter, he was elected from the Rohru constituency in 1990, 1993, 1998 and 2003.^{[citation needed]}

Singh became the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh for the first time in April 1983 and held the post until March 1990. He was again appointed to the role between December 1993 and March 1998; and once more from March 2003. With reappointments within those years, this record amounted to him holding the office on five occasions.^[2]

Between 1998 and 2003, he was Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.^[2] He has also been president of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee from February 1992 to September 1994, and leader of the Congress Legislative Group.^{[citation needed]} He had also been president of the State Congress Committee in 1977, 1979 and 1980.^{[citation needed]} In July 2012, he quit from all key party posts at a crucial time when the State is going for elections in November 2012.The trigger for the resignations is reported to be his exclusion from the Screening Committee for short listing of candidates for the polls.^[5]

He was appointed to lead the party on the eve of the November 2012 elections and did so with success.^[6] The party then agreed to him becoming Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh for a record sixth time.^[7]

Social and cultural activities

Outside of politics, Singh has involvement with various social and cultural bodies. A consequence of these interests is that he has been president of the Sanskrit Sahitya Sammelan and of the Himachal Pradesh branch of the Friends of the Soviet Union.^[2]

Corruption charges

On 3 August 2009, a legal case was registered against Singh and his wife by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Himachal Pradesh. The allegations were that they had breached the Prevention of Corruption Act in 1989, when Singh was Chief Minister of the state. The Bureau alleged that it had evidence in recorded conversations between the couple and various others concerning suspect financial transactions.^[8] The alleged recordings, which involved a now-dead officer of the Indian Administrative Service and several industrialists, dated from 2007 and were provided by a political opponent, Vijai Singh Mankotia.^[9]

The couple were granted bail in December 2010 but in April 2011 the state government requested that this be rescinded due to allegations of witness tampering.^[9] This request followed attempts by two industrialists to remove themselves from the prosecution case, claiming that the evidence was forged and incorrect.^[10][11]

The Singhs have attempted to have the matter taken out of police hands and passed to the Central Bureau of Investigation, as well as seeking a stay on further trial court proceedings. In January 2012, the Himachal Pradesh High Court had refused the latest of their petitions aimed at achieving the transfer and stay. The court ordered that the examination of potential charges and evidence by a trial court should go ahead.^[12] On 26 June 2012, Singh resigned from the Union Cabinet as a consequence of corruption charges being pressed against him.^[4] The couple were acquitted on the eve of Singh taking the role of Chief Minister in December 2012.^[13]

References

v t e Lists of chief ministers of Indian states (and current incumbents)     Andhra Pradesh: Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy Arunachal Pradesh: Nabam Tuki Assam: Tarun Gogoi Bihar: Nitish Kumar Chhattisgarh: Raman Singh Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal Goa: Manohar Parrikar Gujarat: Narendra Modi Haryana: Bhupinder Singh Hooda Himachal Pradesh: Virbhadra Singh Jammu and Kashmir: Omar Abdullah Jharkhand: Hemant Soren Karnataka: Siddaramaiah Kerala: Oommen Chandy Madhya Pradesh: Shivraj Singh Chouhan Maharashtra: Prithviraj Chavan Manipur: Okram Ibobi Singh Meghalaya: Mukul Sangma Mizoram: Pu Lalthanhawla Nagaland: Neiphiu Rio Odisha: Naveen Patnaik Puducherry: N. Rangaswamy Punjab: Parkash Singh Badal Rajasthan: Vasundhara Raje Sikkim: Pawan Kumar Chamling Tamil Nadu: Jayalalithaa Tripura: Manik Sarkar Uttar Pradesh: Akhilesh Yadav Uttarakhand: Harish Rawat West Bengal: Mamata Banerjee