Narayan Dutt Tiwari

Narayan Dutt Tiwari

Narayan Dutt Tiwari (born 18 October 1925) is an Indian political figure. He was Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh three times during the 1970s and 1980s and was Chief Minister of Uttarkhand from 2002 to 2007. A member of the Indian National Congress, he subsequently served as Governor of Andhra Pradesh from 2007 until 2009, when he resigned following a sex scandal.

Early life and education

Narayan Dutt Tiwari was born in 1925, in village Baluti, Nainital district. His father Poornanand Tiwari was an official in the forest department, and who later resigned and joined the Non-cooperation movement. Tiwari received his education at various schools including, M.B. School, Haldwani, E.M. High School, Bareilly and C.R.S.T. High School, Nainital.

His initiation into politics came early, when during the Indian Independence movement, he was arrested on December 14, 1942 for writing Anti-British leaflets opposing imperialist policies, and sent to Nainital jail, where his father was already lodged.

Upon his release 15 months in 1944, he joined Allahabad University, where he topped the University in M.A. (Political Science), he continued his education doing LLB from the same university, and elected as the President of the Students’ Union of the Allahabad University in 1947. Meanwhile he was remained Secretary, All India Students Congress, 1945-49.

Career

In the first election in Uttar Pradesh after the independence for the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly held in 1952, he was elected from Nanital constituency and became an MLA for the first time on Praja Samajwadi Party ticket. In 1957, he was elected from the Nainital legislative constituency, and became the leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

In 1963, he joined the Indian National Congress, and was elected M.L.A. from the Kashipur, Uttarakhand constituency in 1965, in the same year he was appointed a minister in the Government of Uttar Pradesh. After that he also remained Minister for Finance and Parliamentary Affairs in the Chaudhary Charan Singh Government (1979–1980). In 1968, he established Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre (JNNYC) is a voluntary Organisation. He remained the first President of Indian Youth Congress from 1969 to 1971.

Positions Held

N.D. Tiwari was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh three times: from January 1976 to April 1977, from August 1984 to September 1985 and from June 1988 to December 1988. He was popularly known as Bada Tarkey( the great developer)for development works initiated by him. He did a lot of work in developing the road and bridge network of U.P. – the network expanded significantly. He was elected to 7th Lok Sabha in 1980, and served as a union minister in several portfolios in the 1980s: starting with Planning, and also remained Dpt. Chairman, Planning Commission. Thereafter he became a member of Rajya Sabha 1985-1988, during this period he also remained the Minister of Industries in September 1985 and in addition to that portfolio, became minister of Petroleum in 1986. He then served as India’s External Affairs Minister from October 1986 until July 1987, at which point he became Minister of Finance and Commerce, serving in that position until June 1988, when he became chief minister of Uttar Pradesh for the third time.

He was a contender to be Prime Minister of India in the early 1990s but was beaten by the late Narasimha Rao.One of the key reasons was that he lost the Lok Sabha elections by a mere 800 votes. In 1994, he resigned from Congress and formed his own All India Indira Congress (Tiwari) along with senior Congress leader, Arjun Singh in 1995, but joined back when Sonia Gandhi came at the helm of affairs of the party two years later, and after a devastating defeat of the party under Narasimha Rao during the general elections in 1996. Tiwari was elected to the 11th Lok Sabha in 1996, and again to the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.

He later served as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, which was carved out of Uttar Pradesh, from 2002 through 2007. He offered to resign on 5 March 2006. He left office in March 2007 following setbacks for his party in the state elections.