Born (on 5 November 1930) into an affluent landowning family from Rewa in Madhya Pradesh, ARJUN SINGH entered the political arena in 1957 as an independent candidate and was elected to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly. He joined the Congress in 1960, at the behest of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and was inducted as a minister in the state cabinet in 1963. He consolidated his position and rose to become chief minister of the state in June 1980. He was in office till 12 March 1985, after which he was appointed governor of Punjab. In the Rajiv Gandhi Government, he served as Union commerce minister and later Union communications minister. He held the portfolio of Union human resources development minister during the prime ministership of Narasimha Rao and later during that of Dr Manmohan Singh. Arjun Singh passed away on 4 March 2011 at New Delhi.