Arjun Singh (Madhya Pradesh politician)

Arjun Singh was the son of Shiv Bahadur Singh, a jagirdar and the 26th Rao of Churhat thikana, and an INC politician.

Arjun Singh, promised to implement 27% reservation for OBCs in institutes of higher education (twenty central universities, the IITs, NITs, IIMs and AIIMS) after the State Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Assam and West Bengal, in accordance with the 93rd Constitutional Amendment which was passed unanimously by both Houses of Parliament.

This amendment enabled provision of reservation (27%) for Other Backward Class(OBCs) in government as well as private educational institutions.

Arjun Singh (5 November 1930 – 4 March 2011) was an Indian politician from the Indian National Congress, who served twice as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s.

He also served twice as the Union Minister of Human Resource Development, in the Manmohan Singh and P. V. Narasimha Rao ministries.

Arjun Singh was first elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1957 from Majholi as an independent candidate.

He joined the Indian National Congress in 1960.

He was re-elected from Majholi in 1962 and became a minister in the INC government of Dwarka Prasad Mishra.

In 1967, he lost the election from Churhat due to a fallout with the then chief minister Dwarka Prasad Mishra.

However, he won a bypoll in the same year from Umaria.

He was elected from Sidhi in 1972 and became a minister in the INC government of Prakash Chandra Sethi.

In 1977, he was elected from Churhat and became the Leader of Opposition in the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly.

In 1980, when INC achieved a simple majority in the assembly, he won from Churhat and became the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, despite the presence of strong contenders such as Sethi, Vidya Charan Shukla and Shiv Bhanu Singh Solanki.

His five year term was marked by the Bhopal Gas Tragedy.

He led the INC to victory in 1985, yet again winning from Churhat, but was forced to resign as Chief Minister after just one day due to differences with Sriniwas Tiwari.

Motilal Vora succeeded him as Chief Minister.

He resigned his Madhya Pradesh assembly seat and was appointed Governor of Punjab in 1985.

He worked for the implementation of the Rajiv-Longowal Accord for peace in Punjab.

However, after eight months, he resigned as Governor and became Minister of Commerce in the Rajiv Gandhi cabinet.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha from South Delhi in a bypoll in 1985, necessitated by the assassination of the sitting MP Lalit Maken.He was appointed as First Vice-President of Indian National Congress by Rajiv Gandhi.

In 1986, he resigned the Commerce ministry and was appointed Minister of Communications.

He held this post till 1988 when he returned to the Government of Madhya Pradesh and again became Chief Minister of the state.

He resigned his Lok Sabha seat and won a bypoll to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Kharsia in 1988.

However, he resigned as Chief Minister in 1989 owing to the Churhat lottery scam, and was succeeded by Motilal Vora.

He won in 1990 from Churhat.

In 1991, he won from Satna.

He resigned his assembly seat and harboured ambitions of becoming Prime Minister after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.

However, P. V. Narasimha Rao became Prime Minister and Singh was appointed the Minister of Human Resource Development.

He publicly expressed discontent with the Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao after the Babri Masjid demolition.

He resigned as Minister of Human Resource Development in 1994.

In 1996, he rebelled against the INC leadership and formed the All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) along with Narayan Dutt Tiwari.

However, he lost in 1996 from Satna.

Later, he returned to INC after the emergence of Sonia Gandhi.

He lost in 1998 from Hoshangabad.

He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2000 from Madhya Pradesh, and was re-elected in 2006.

He was awarded the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award in 2000.

He served as Minister of Human Resource Development from 2004 to 2009 in the Manmohan Singh cabinet.

He is widely remembered for introducing 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes in educational institutions including IITs, NITs, IIMs and AIIMS, with the 93rd Constitutional Amendment and Central Educational Institutions(CEIs) (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006.

This decision of government lead to the 2006 Indian anti-reservation protests.

On 10 April 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the law for the provision of 27% quota for candidates belonging to the Other Backward Classes in IITs, NITs, IIMs, AIIMS and other premier educational institutions.