Virbhadra Singh - National Politics

National Politics

Singh became a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) political party in August 1961, at a time when Indira Gandhi was its president. She had previously met Singh at his family estate and was favourable to him. Following a selection process involving several other candidates, he was accepted in December 1961 as the INC candidate for the forthcoming 1962 elections.

The election was a success for Singh, who fought the constituency of Mahasu and obtained a seat in the Lok Sabha, which is the lower house of the Parliament of India. He was the youngest member of that, the 3rd Lok Sabha. He repeated that success in the elections of 1967 and 1971, although in the latter election he was elected for the Mandi constituency because the admission of Himachal Pradesh as a state in the Union resulted in the number of constituencies being reduced from six to four. He was again elected from Mandi to the Lok Sabha in 1980. A further election from that constituency came in 2009, following his wife's success there in the 2004 elections.

While President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was assisted by Singh, who acted as an aide-de-camp. Singh was granted the rank of Honorary Captain in the Indian Army by the president around this time. He was a member of the Indian Delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1976.

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. 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, until resigning from office in June 2012.