V. P. Singh

On June 25, 1955, he had an arranged marriage with Sita Kumari, the daughter of the Raja of Deogarh-Madaria, Rajasthan. The couple was blessed with two sons - Ajay Singh, born in 1957 and Abhai Singh, born in 1958.

On November 27, 2008, he died after a long struggle with multiple myeloma (bone marrow cancer) and renal failure in Delhi, India. He was cremated on the banks of the River Ganges in Allahabad.

V. P. Singh was born on June 25, 1931 in the Rajput Gahawar (Rathore) zamindar family of Daiya to Raja Bhagwati Prasad Singh. In 1936, he was adopted by Raja Bahadur Ram Gopal Singh, the ruler of of Manda.

He received his formal education from Colonel Brown Cambridge School, Dehra Dun, and later studied at the Allahabad and Pune (Poona) universities. In 1947-48, he served as the President of the Students Union at Udai Pratap College, Varanasi, and later became the Vice President of Allahabad University Students Union.

In 1969, he joined the Indian National Congress Party and became a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh. In 1971, he won the Lok Sabha elections and became a Member of Parliament. In 1974, he was elected the Union Deputy Minister of Commerce and from November 1976 to March 1977, he served as the Union State Minister of Commerce.

In 1980, he was appointed the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a post he held until 1982. During his tenure, he worked hard to eradicate the dacoit problem in south-western Uttar Pradesh.

In 1983, he resumed his post as Minister of Commerce in the cabinet. He also held additional charge of the Department of Supply and became the Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha).

In September 1984, he was elected President of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. Upon the death of Indira Gandhi in October 1984, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi appointed him the Union Finance Minister on December 31, 1984.

In January 1987, he was transferred to the post of minister of defense but he resigned from Gandhi’s cabinet later that year, after his investigations of arms-procurement fraud were squelched. Soon afterwards, he resigned from the government altogether and left the Congress Party.