Urmila Singh (6 August 1946 – 29 May 2018) was the former

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the

Indian state India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, with a total of 36 entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into districts and smaller administrative divisions. History Pre-indepen ...

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

. She was appointed governor on 25 January 2010.

Early life

Urmila Singh was born in Phingeshwar village in Raipur district, now located in

Chhattisgarh Chhattisgarh (, ) is a landlocked state in Central India. It is the ninth largest state by area, and with a population of roughly 30 million, the seventeenth most populous. It borders seven states – Uttar Pradesh to the north, Madhya Prade ...

state, into a landowning family of central India, which also produced freedom fighters and social reformers. Urmila's great-grandfather, Raja Natwar Singh (alias Lalla Shah) of Haridaypur, was a freedom fighter, who was executed by the British rulers. Some other family members were deported to serve sentences in the

Andaman and Nicobar islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

. Urmila Singh was married at a young age to Virendra Bahadur Singh, Raja of Seraipally princely state in Chhattisgarh. The couple became the parents of one daughter and two sons and Urmila Singh devoted herself to the nurture of her family. Virendra Bahadur Singh became a prominent

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

party political and a member of the

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 ...

Legislative Assembly, elected from the areas that his family had previously ruled for several centuries. His mother, Rani Shyam Kumari Devi, was a Member of Parliament.

Political career

In Madhya Pradesh

After the sudden early death of her husband, Urmila Singh stepped into the political arena to contest the assembly seat previously held by him. She was duly elected for several consecutive terms from the family borough to the Madhya Pradesh assembly and remained a member from 1985 to 2003. She served as a Minister of State for Dairy Development (1993–95) and as Cabinet Minister for Social Welfare and Tribal Welfare (1998–2003). She also served as President of the

MP Congress Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) is the Pradesh Congress Committee (state wing) of the Indian National Congress (INC) serving in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Current President of MPCC is Kamal Nath. Structure and composition Madhya P ...

between 1996 and 1998.

In Chhattisgarh

The new state of Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000, and Urmila's constituency now fell to the portion of the new state. Urmila Singh was therefore automatically a member of the first ever legislative assembly of Chhattisgarh between 2000 and 2003. The Congress party suffered a rout in both states in the 2003 assembly elections and Urmila Singh was one of the casualties. She lost the elections in 2008 also.

As Governor

In recognition of her services to the congress party, the congress-led central government appointed her governor of Himachal Pradesh in 2010. She took office on 25 January 2010 and completed her term on 24 January 2015, becoming the first woman governor in Himachal to do so.

Death

Urmila Singh died on 29 May 2018, aged 71. According to family sources, she had been suffering from brain-related complications. She was admitted to a private hospital where her condition remained unstable. She is survived by her two sons and a daughter.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Urmila 1946 births 2018 deaths People from Raipur district Governors of Himachal Pradesh Women state governors of India Indian National Congress politicians from Madhya Pradesh Chhattisgarh MLAs 2000–2003 Women in Himachal Pradesh politics Madhya Pradesh MLAs 1985–1990 Madhya Pradesh MLAs 1993–1998 Madhya Pradesh MLAs 1998–2003 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians 21st-century Indian women politicians 21st-century Indian politicians Women members of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly Women members of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly