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S.S. Barnala

Surjit Singh Barnala
Surjith singh barnala.JPG
Governor of Tamil Nadu
In office
3 November 2004 – 31 August 2011
Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi
J. Jayalalithaa
Preceded by P. S. Ramamohan Rao
Succeeded by Konijeti Rosaiah
Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry
In office
9 April – 27 July 2009
Preceded by Govind Singh Gurjar
Succeeded by Iqbal Singh
18th Governor of Andhra Pradesh
In office
3 January 2003 – 3 November 2004
Preceded by C. Rangarajan
Succeeded by Sushilkumar Shinde
1st Governor of Uttarakhand
In office
9 November 2000 – 7 January 2003
Preceded by Office established
Succeeded by Sudarshan Agarwal
Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
In office
1998–1999
Preceded by M. Arunachalam
Succeeded by Suresh Prabhu
Lieutenant Governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
In office
December 1990 – 18 March 1993
Preceded by Ranjit Singh Dyal
Succeeded by Vakkom Purushothaman
11th Chief Minister of Punjab
In office
29 September 1985 – 11 June 1987
Preceded by President's rule
Succeeded by President's rule
Personal details
Born (1925-10-21)21 October 1925
Ateli, Punjab, British India
(now in Haryana, India)
Died 14 January 2017(2017-01-14) (aged 91)
Chandigarh, India
Political party Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal)
Spouse(s) Surjit Kaur Barnala
Religion Sikhism

Surjit Singh Barnala (21 October 1925 – 14 January 2017) was an Indian politician who served as the Chief Minister of Punjab state from 1985 to 1987. Following that he served as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands and a Union Minister on handling various portfolios.

Barnala was born in Ateli, Haryana. Born of a well-to-do family (his father was a magistrate), Barnala passed Law from Lucknow University in 1946. In Lucknow, he was involved in the Quit India Movement of 1942. Subsequently he practised law for some years, and became politically active in the late '60s, rising through the ranks of Akali Dal. Though, he first stood for election in 1952 but lost by a meagre 4 votes.

Barnala's first ministerial assignment was in 1969 when he was sworn in as Education Minister in the Justice Gurnam Singh Government and was instrumental in setting up the Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar.

In 1977 he was elected to the Indian Parliament and was inducted in the Morarji Desai Cabinat as the Agriculture Minister at the time when the Ministry included Irrigation Water Resources, Food, Environment and Forests, Consumer Affairs, Power and Chemical And Fertilizers and Rural Development. In 1978, Barnala signed the historic Ganga Waters Agreement (Farakka Agreement) with Bangladesh.

In 1979, during the turmoil in the national government when PM Morarji Desai resigned, the then President Neelam Sanjiva Reddy toyed with the idea of appointing an interim government with Barnala as Prime Minister but had to drop the idea at the last moment fearing horse trading by a top member of the Cabinet, and Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh assumed Prime Ministership.


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