Arif Beg (1935–2016) was a

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

(BJP) leader. He hailed from Indore in

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

state. His father, Qaramat ‘Pahalwan’ Baig, had reached Indore from Afghanistan.

Political career

He was an Indian Union Minister (1977–1980). He was a

Union Minister The Union Council of Ministers Article 58 of the ''Constitution of India'' is the principal executive organ of the Government of India, which is responsible for being the senior decision making body of the executive branch. It is chaired by t ...

of Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai's government. Also he was a cabinet minister in the

government of Madhya Pradesh Government of Madhya Pradesh also known as the State Government of Madhya Pradesh, or locally as the State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and its 52 districts. It consists of an executive ...

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union terri ...

Govind Narayan Singh Govind Narayan Singh (25 July 1920 – 10 May 2005), was an Indian politician. He was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh from July 30, 1967 to March 12, 1969. He was also Governor of Bihar state from February 26, 1988 to January 24, 1989. Poli ...

. He was the youngest minister in the cabinet at that time (1967–1969), and after being released from jail in emergency, he contested the Bhopal Lok Sabha as a rashtriya Lok Dal candidate in the general election. He defeated senior Congress leader

Shankar Dayal Sharma Shankar Dayal Sharma (; 19 August 1918 – 26 December 1999) was an Indian lawyer and politician from the state of Madhya Pradesh who served as the ninth President of India, from 1992 to 1997. Born in Bhopal, Sharma studied at Agra, Allahaba ...

by a margin of 109,000 votes, and later

became the

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Mur ...

. He was also elected a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

from Betul Lok Sabha of

state in the 1989 Lok Sabha election, when he defeated Congress candidate

Aslam Sher Khan Aslam Sher Khan (born 15 July 1953) is an Indian hockey player and a former member of the Indian team. In the 1975 World Cup held at Kuala Lumpur, Aslam Sher Khan helped Indian Hockey Team to win the gold medal. He was also a member of ...

. He has been a member of the

Bharatiya Jan Sangh The Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh, full name: Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh; ) ( ISO 15919: '' Akhila Bhāratīya Jana Saṅgha '' ) was an Indian right wing political party that existed from 1951 to 1977 and was the po ...

and a founding member of the

, has been the National Vice President of the BJP Chief Executive, as well as has held many important positions. He has the distinction of being the founder National President of the Bharatiya Janata Party Minority Front. Arif Beg (or Arif Baig) started his electoral journey when he was elected to Madhya Pradesh vidhan sabha in 1967 from Indore as a socialist. His half-brother Bala Baig was also a well-known figure in Indore, who spent 3 years in jail in 1990s for a host of illegal activities. Arif Beg soon joined Jana Sangh in 1973, as one of its earliest Muslim faces, who was later eclipsed in prominence when Sikander Bakht joined BJP in 1980. He was jailed during Emergency with other leaders of Jana Sangh, like Kushabhau Thakre. In 1977 he was elected to

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

from

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

as Janata Party candidate. He lost from Bhopal in 1980 on Janata Party's ticket, and from Khandwa in 1984 on BJP's ticket. In 1989 he was elected to the

from Betul constituency as BJP's candidate. With Sikander Bakht becoming the most prominent Muslim in BJP, Arif Beg left the party in 1996, but he returned to it in 2003. He contested Bhopal again in 1998 but for Congress, and lost this time to BJP's Sushil Chandra Varma. He fought his last electoral battle in 2013 when, back in BJP by now, he was its losing candidate in 2013 Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha election from Bhopal North seat, from where Arif Aqueel of Congress won.

Death

Arif Beg died on September 5, 2016 in

at the age of 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beg, Arif 1930s births 2016 deaths Politicians from Bhopal India MPs 1977–1979 Lok Sabha members from Madhya Pradesh India MPs 1989–1991 People from Betul district Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Madhya Pradesh Bharatiya Jana Sangh politicians Janata Party politicians Bharatiya Lok Dal politicians Samyukta Socialist Party politicians

Political career

Death

See also

References