A post graduate from St Stephen’s College, New Delhi, Virbhadra Singh has been elected to the Lok Sabha five times – in 1962, 1967, 1971, 1980 and 2009. He has served in the ministries of tourism, civil aviation, industries, steel, and micro, small and medium enterprises.

The king of the erstwhile princely state of Rampur Bushair, Virbhadra Singh was first elected to the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1962 and has been elected as MLA seven times. He moved to the national scene in 1967 before returning to state politics in 1983. Between 1983 and 2007, Virbhadra served as the CM for five terms.

This time, Virbhadra Singh will contest from the recently-created Shimla Rural constituency after Rohru seat was reserved for the Scheduled Castes following delimitation.

By Deepak Nagpal