Rao Birender Singh Rewari

Rao Birender Singh (20 February 1921-30 September 2009) was an Indian politician. He served as the Chief Minister of Haryana from 24 March 1967 until 2 November, 1967, and also served in the union cabinet. He was the second Chief Minister of the state and first speaker of Haryana Vidhan Sabha after its secession from Punjab, which state he had also represented as a minister at one time.


Early Life
Born on 20th February 1921 in the village of Nangal Pathani, he joined St Stephens College in 1942. After graduating he enrolled in the Indian National Army and fought in the Second World War.

Political Career

He formed the Kisan-Mazdur party in 1952. This was the beginning of his political career. Rao Birender Singh fought as an independent candidate in the Joint Punjab Vidhan Sabha for the 1st time in 1954 and successfully won. He joined the Congress party in 1956 under the leadership of Pandit Nehru.

He was inducted into the Pratap Singh Kairon Government and held charges of several Ministries like PWD, Irrigation and Power, Revenue and Consolidation etc. From 1962 to 1966 he played a prominent role in establishing the Hindi speaking state of Haryana. After the formation of Haryana in 1966, he was elected MLA from Pataudi constituency after serving as MLC (member of legislative council) for 12 years. He went on to become the 1st speaker of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha. On 23rd March 1967, he became the Chief Minister of Haryana. In March of 1967, Rao Birender Singh established the Vishal Haryana Party. He was elected to the 5th Lok Sabha in 1971 from the Mahendragarh constituency on the Vishal Haryana Party ticket. In 1978 he merged this party with the Congress. In 1980, he was re-elected to the 7th Lok Sabha and he played a prominent role in the formation of the Congress Government in the centre. He served as Cabinet Minister of Food, Agriculture, Rural development, Irrigation, Civil supply. In 1984, he was re-elected to the 8th Lok Sabha and became a part of The Rajiv Gandhi ministry. He later resigned from both the Congress party and the Lok Sabha.

Contribution to Rewari

By his efforts Rewari was made a separate district in 1989. In 1989, he was re-elected to the 9th Lok Sabha seat from Mahendragarh on the Janata Dal ticket and became the Union Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in the Chandra Shekhar ministry.

Educational-Welfare of Ahirwal areas

Apart from his political service to the Nation Rao Birender Singh also served the backward areas of Ahirwal by establishing many educational institutions like Ahir College Rewari, RBS School-Rewari, Rao Tula Ram School- Rewari, Rao Tula Ram Technical College- Delhi. He is the founder of RBS College of Education- Rampura, Rewari.

Death

He died of cardiac arrest in Gurgaon on 30 September 2009.^[1]

Legacy

He was the direct descendant of Rao Tula Ram (an important figure from Haryana in 1857 revolt) and his son Rao Inderjit Singh is currently a member of parliament from Gurgaon constituency of Haryana state.