Balram Das Tandon (1 November 1927 – 14 August 2018) was an Indian politician and the Former Governor of Chhattisgarh. In his adulthood for some years he was a

pracharak The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family"), whi ...

of the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS,, ) is an Indian right-wing politics, right-wing, Hindutva, Hindu nationalist volunteer paramilitary organisation. It is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar ( ...

(RSS), and a leader of

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

from

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

Political career

He was deputy chief minister in the Justice (retd)

Gurnam Singh Gurnam Singh (25 February 1899 – 31 May 1973) was an Indian politician and the 6th Chief Minister of Punjab from 8 March 1967 to 25 November 1967, and again between 17 February 1969 to 27 March 1970. He was the first Shiromani Akali Dal ...

Akali Dal The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) (translation: ''Supreme Eternal Party'') is a Centre-right politics, centre-right Sikhism, Sikh-centric state political party in Punjab, India, Punjab, India. The party is the second-oldest in India, after Indian ...

Jan Sangh The Akhil Bharatiya Jana Sangh ( BJS or JS, short name: Jan Sangh) was a Hindutva political party active in India. It was established on 21 October 1951 in Delhi by three founding members: Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, Balraj Madhok and Deendayal ...

ministry in 1969-70. He also served as cabinet minister in 1977-79 and in 1997–2002 in the ministries headed by

Parkash Singh Badal Parkash Singh Badal (8 December 1927 – 25 April 2023) was an Indian politician and Sikh rights advocate who served as the 8th Chief Minister of Punjab from 1970 to 1971, from 1977 to 1980, from 1997 to 2002, and from 2007 to 2017, the longes ...

. Tandon was a founding member of the

in 1951, and served as secretary of Punjab Jan Sangh from 1951 to 1957, and as president of the Punjab BJP from 1995 to 1997. He was elected to

Punjab Legislative Assembly The Punjab Legislative Assembly or the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is the unicameral legislature of the state of Punjab (India), Punjab in India. The Sixteenth Punjab Legislative Assembly was constituted in March 2022. At present, it consists of 117 M ...

six times — five times from

Amritsar Amritsar, also known as Ambarsar, is the second-List of cities in Punjab, India by population, largest city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, after Ludhiana. Located in the Majha region, it is a major cultural, transportatio ...

in 1960,1962,1967,1969, and 1977, and once from

Rajpura Rajpura () is a city in Patiala district in the Indian state of Punjab, India, situated along the border of the Indian state of Haryana. It is located 26 KM Patiala city, towards East from district headquarter. It is Tehsil headquarter, here ...

in 1997. He contested the Rajpura seat in 2002, but lost to Raj Khurana of the Indian National Congress. He was imprisoned in 1975 during the Emergency for 19 months. On 14 July 2014 he was named as the next

Governor of Chhattisgarh The governor of Chhattisgarh is the nominal head of state of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The governor is appointed by the president of India. The official residence of the governor is Raj Bhavan, Raipur, Raj Bhavan. The position of the ...

Family life

Tandon married Brijpal, who was also an activist in the freedom movement, in 1958. They had two daughters, Alka Kawatra and Poonam Batra, who reside in New Delhi, and one son,

Sanjay Tandon Sanjay Tandon (born 10 September 1963) is an Indian politician in the Bhartiya Janata Party. He is the BJP candidate in the 2024 Indian general election in Chandigarh. His father Balramji Das Tandon was the former Governor of Chhattisgarh a ...

, who is also part of the political framework for

BJP 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. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

References

, - 1927 births 2018 deaths Politicians from Amritsar State cabinet ministers of Punjab, India Bharatiya Jana Sangh politicians Governors of Chhattisgarh Indian people imprisoned during the Emergency (India) Deputy chief ministers of Punjab, India Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharaks Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Punjab Punjab, India MLAs 1957–1962 Punjab, India MLAs 1962–1967 Punjab, India MLAs 1967–1972 Punjab, India MLAs 1977–1980 Punjab, India MLAs 1997–2002 {{PunjabIN-BJP-politician-stub