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