Sahib Singh Verma (15 March 1943 – 30 June 2007) was an Indian politician and the former senior vice-president of the

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 Modi ...

. He served as

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 ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

(1996–1998) and was member of

13th Lok Sabha The 13th Lok Sabha (10 October 1999 – 6 February 2004) is the thirteenth session of the Lok Sabha (House of the People, or lower house in the Parliament of India). It was convened after 1999 Indian general election held during September–Oc ...

, Parliament of India (1999–2004). He served as the Union Labour Minister of India.

Life

Sahib Singh was born on 15 March 1943 in

Mundka Mundka is a census town and village in the West Delhi district of Delhi. It is the birthplace and village of former Chief Minister of Delhi, the late Dr. Sahib Singh Verma. Its neighbouring villages are Bakkarwala and Nangloi. The current MLA ...

village,

to Mir Singh, a farmer, and Bharpai Devi in a

Jat The Jat people ((), ()) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subse ...

family. In early childhood he was deeply influenced by Arya Samaj. Singh had a PhD degree in

Library Science Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

, and started work as librarian in Bhagat Singh College, Delhi. He also held a master's degree in Arts, ( M.A.) and also in

from

Aligarh Muslim University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a Public University, public Central University (India), central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Orie ...

. In 1954, when he was just 11, he and Sahib Kaur were married. They had two sons and three daughters and one of his sons,

Parvesh Verma Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma (born 7 November 1977) is an Indian politician and a Member of parliament (MP) from West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. As a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), he is serving his second term as an MP for West D ...

is Member of parliament of Lok Sabha from West Delhi.

Political career

He was active in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He had also served the World Jat Aryan Foundation, as its president. In 1977 he was elected to the

Municipal Corporation of Delhi Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is the municipal corporation that governs most of Delhi, India. The MCD is among the largest municipal bodies in the world providing civic services to an estimated population of more than 11 million citiz ...

and took the Oath as a Councillor by the hands of

Guru Radha Kishan Guru Radha Kishan (1925-1996) was an Indian Independence activist and Communist politician. Early life Radha Kishan was born in 1925 in a family of farmers on Krishna Janmashtami in Bid village (currently in Harda district, Madhya Pradesh). ...

. Initially he won as a

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

candidate and was re-elected on a BJP ticket. He became the Education and Development Minister in the Delhi government in 1993. In 1996, after

Madan Lal Khurana Madan Lal Khurana (15 October 1936 – 27 October 2018) was an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of Delhi from 1993 to 1996. He also served as Governor of Rajasthan in 2004. He was the Union Minister of Parliamentary affairs and Touri ...

was embroiled in a corruption crisis, Sahib Singh became the Chief Minister of Delhi. Singh served as CM for two and a half years, facing increasing rivalry from Khurana. Following an onion price crisis, he was replaced by Sushma Swaraj. Subsequently, he won the

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-past ...

elections, 1999 from

Outer Delhi {{Short pages monitor