7 times MLA, 5 term MP and longest serving CM of HP for 20 yrs Vir Bhadra Singh dies of prolonged illness
The longest serving chief minister of Himachal Pradesh for 20 protracted years, seven times MLA and lok sabha MP for five terms extremely popular leader, earlier a king of princely state Bushar, in Shimla district, popularly pronounced as Raja Sahab in reverence, 87 years old veteran Congress leader Vir Bhadra Singh is no more who breathed his last at Indira Gandhi Medical College and hospital at Shimla in Himachal Pradesh after prolonged illness.
Both former CMs of HP belonging to BJP n Congress had very good personal terms. Hugging each other forgetting their ideological affiliations
His sad demise has send shock waves across spectrum in Himachal Pradesh irrespective of ideological considerations.
Born in 1934, in a princely state of Bushahr, Vir Bhadra Singh was the longest serving fourth chief minister of Himachal Pradesh having served as CM from 1983 to 1990, 1993 to 1998, and from 2003 to 2007 and finally 2012 to 2017 replacing the current CM Jairam Thakur for two decades.
He was an elected member of the Lok Sabha in 1962, 1967, 1971, 1980 and in 2009.
Prior to his death, he served as MLA from Arki . Close to former prime minister Indira Gandhi he was a member of the Indian National Congress having served as union minister during her tenure for the first time as minister of state for Tourism and Civil aviation from 1976 to 1977. From 1980 to 1983 he was minister of small scale industries, from 2009 to 2011 he was union minister for steels and thereafter becoming minister of Micro and small industries finally resigning in 2012.
His wife, Pratibha Singh, was also a Lok Sabha member from Mandi. Vir Bhadra Singh served as the state chief minister till 2017 at the age of 84 finally resigning after the Congress lost at the hustings at the hands of the saffron party with Jairam Thakur becoming the CM.
Leader of the opposition in HP assembly between 1998 to 2003 Veer Bhadhra Singh was also the state Congress president in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1992 to 1994 and 2012.
Hailing from a Royal family, leaving behind his wife Pratibha Singh , son Vikramaditya Singh and two daughters Abhilasha Kumari and Aparajita Singh , Vir Bhadra Singh got his early in Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehradun, St Edward School Simla and Bishop Cotton School. He pursued Bachelor of Arts from prestigious St. Stephens College, Delhi and obtained the BA honours degree later on marrying Ratna Kumari in 1954.
He was remarried in 1968 to Pratibha Singh. The daughter from his earlier wife Abhilaasha Kumari was the judge of Gujarat high court from from 2006 to 2018.
Despite the immense popularity as veteran Congress leader of national stature and highly respected in his state of Himachal Pradesh with his chequered political career spanning more than 6 decades having been elected MLA in 1962 for the first time never to look back again till his death, Vir Bhadra Singh was entangled in a corruption case in August 2009 when an FIR was registered against him and his wife in Himachal Pradesh under Prevention of Corruption Act in 1989. However he was acquitted when he took charge as state CM in 2012.
However from 2009 to 2011 when he was central steel minister, the CBI filed a case against him, his wife, daughter Aparajita and son Vikramaditya under disproportionate assets case of 6.1 crores.
The CBI thereafter raided their eleven properties while probing the disproportionate assets case putting the family in quandry but despite these cases of corruption and disproportionate asset cases he ruled Himachal Pradesh, unnerved, till 2017 four years before his death after prolonged illness.
His body has been placed at Congress office , Simla for the last Darshans and will be consigned to flames on Friday at Rampur, Himachal Pradesh.
