Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna

Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna (25 April 1919 – 17 March 1989) was an Indian National Congress leader and former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh; he later joined Bharatiya Lok Dal and worked with Charan Singh.

He was born on 25 April 1919 in Bughani, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand in a Garhwali Brahmin family.

The family later moved to Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Little is known about his first marriage.

His first wife always lived in his native village Bughani as a simple village woman.

His second wife, Kamala Bahuguna, lived with him in Allahabad and was mother of their three children:

He studied in D.A.V. School and Messmore Inter College of Pauri Town.

He passed 10th from Pauri and went to the Government Intermediate College in Allahabad in 1937 in the Bachelor of Science programme.

He was jailed as a part of Quit India movement from 1942 to 1946.

He received an Arts degree in 1946.

In 1971, he was made State Minister for Communication in the Union Cabinet.

In 1973, he was appointed the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India.

However, his tenure was short and he was forced to resign by Prime minister Indira Gandhi in 1975.

In early 1977, when Indira Gandhi lifted the state emergency and called for new elections to the Lok Sabha, Bahuguna left the ruling Congress party of Indira and formed a new group called Congress for Democracy (CFD) with Jagjivan Ram and Nandini Satpathy.

The CFD joined the Janata alliance to contest the elections.

After the victory of the Janata alliance, Bahuguna joined the cabinet of Janata Prime Minister Morarji Desai as the minister of chemicals and fertilizers.

In 1979, he became the Finance Minister under the short lived (August - December 1979) Charan Singh administration.

During his term, Indian economy went into the last recession of the 20th century.

Real GDP growth fell by massive 5.2% in 1979 due to the global energy crisis.

Bahuguna withdrew from the government and joined hands with Indira Gandhi in October 1979.

In the January 1980 Parliamentary elections he won from Garhwal as Indira Gandhi's Congress(I) party candidate.

But, he soon left the party and resigned his seat subsequently.

He won the by-election for the seat in 1982.

He contested against the Congress candidate, Amitabh Bachchan, in 1984 Parliamentary elections from Allahabad constituency.

Bachchan won the election by approximately 1,87,000 votes.

Later his wife Kamla Bahuguna also stood for by-elections from Allahabad.

Bahuguna fell ill in 1988 and flew to the United States for coronary bypass surgery.

The surgery was unsuccessful and he died 17 March 1989 in a Cleveland hospital.