Shyama Singh (born 26 November 1942 – 11 September 2017) was an Indian politician and a former Member of Parliament from the

Aurangabad (Bihar) (Lok Sabha constituency) The Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 40 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Bihar state in eastern India. It is known as Chittorgarh of Bihar as this constituency constitute large number of Rajput voters. After independenc ...

and was married to the former Governor of Nagaland and

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

Nikhil Kumar Nikhil Kumar (born 15 July 1941) is a former IPS officer-turned politician hailing from Bihar who was Governor of Nagaland from 2009 to 2013 and Governor of Kerala from 2013 to 2014. One of country's well knownIPS officers of 1963 batch from ...

, who was also elected to the 14th

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 ...

from the same constituency in Bihar. She joined Congress at the initiative of

Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi (; 20 August 1944 – 21 May 1991) was an Indian politician who served as the sixth prime minister of India from 1984 to 1989. He took office after the 1984 assassination of his mother, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, to beco ...

, the late

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

, whom she met at a social event in Delhi.As a parliamentarian,her crowning achievement was reviving the

Nabinagar Super Thermal Power Project Nabinagar Super Thermal Power Project is a coal-based thermal power plant located at Sivanpur village in Nabinagar taluk in Aurangabad district, Bihar. It was conceptualised in 1989 by the then Chief Minister of Bihar Satyendra Narayan Sinha ...

which her father-in-law and veteran Bihar leader Late

Satyendra Narayan Singh Satyendra Narayan Sinha (12 July 1917 – 4 September 2006) was an Indian politician and statesman, participant in the Indian independence movement, a leading light of Jaya Prakash Narayan's ‘ ''complete revolution''’ movement during the ...

had conceived in 1989 as the then Chief Minister of Bihar.Shyama Singh was also the vice president of the

Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee The Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) is the political unit of the Indian National Congress for the state of Bihar. Its head office is situated in Patna at the Sadaqat Ashram. The current working presidents are Shyam Sunder Singh Dhee ...

Early life

She is daughter of

Indian Civil Service The Indian Civil Service (ICS), officially known as the Imperial Civil Service, was the higher civil service of the British Empire in India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947. Its members ruled over more than 300 million ...

officer Sir T. P. Singh who had also served as independent India's first finance secretary and her mother

Madhuri Singh Madhuri Singh ( Chand; 13 January 1923 – 31 December 1989) was an Indian politician. She was elected to the Lok Sabha, lower house of the Parliament of India from Purnea, Bihar in 1980 and 1984 as a member of the Indian National Congress. Si ...

, has been a two-term member of

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

from

Purnea Purnia ()(also romanized as Purnea) is a city that serves as the administrative headquarters of both Purnia district and Purnia division in the Indian state of Bihar. Total geographical area of Purnia Urban Agglomeration is which is next ...

. She completed her school education from Patna. Thereafter, she graduated in History from

Indraprastha College for Women Indraprastha College for Women, also known as Indraprastha College or IP College ( hi, इंद्रप्रस्थ महिला महाविद्यालय), is the oldest women's college in Delhi. Established in 1924, it is a con ...

. Her elder brother is former bureaucrat and

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

N. K. Singh Nand Kishore Singh is an Indian politician, economist and former Indian Administrative Service officer. He is a senior member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) since March 2014 after having served as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha ...

(A 1964 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre) who has served as India's Revenue Secretary and also

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India The Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister of India (PS to the PM) is the senior-most bureaucrat in, and the administrative head of, the Prime Minister's Office. The officeholder is generally a civil servant, commonly from the Indian Adminis ...

. Her younger brother Uday Singh also twice represented the Purnea

constituency of Bihar in Lok Sabha. Her father-in-law and former Bihar Chief Minister Late ''Chhote Saheb'' ( S.N. Sinha), also represented

for seven consecutive terms in the

First Lady of Nagaland

Her husband took the oath of office and secrecy as the Governor of Nagaland on 15 October 2009 and she became the first lady of Nagaland. She is an expert gardener,the grandeur of her garden at 28 Akbar Road, occupied by her family for some 30 years, was phenomenal.It invariably won awards at all Delhi's flower shows.

First Lady of Kerala

She became the First Lady of Kerala when Shri

became the Governor of Kerala in 2013

Member of Parliament

Shyama, hailing from a renowned family of bureaucrats in Bihar, successfully contested and represented the Aurangabad parliamentary constituency in the

from 1999–2004. As an MP, She initiated several development projects in Schools, Women's College and a new computer centre was set up in the district.

Demise

Shyama Singh passed away during the course of her treatment at Delhi's Escorts Fortis hospital in the wee hours of 11 September 2017 after a prolonged illness.The Congress chief

Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi ('' née'' Maino; born 9 December 1946) is an Indian politician. She is the longest serving president of the Indian National Congress, a social democratic political party, which has governed India for most of its post-independ ...

while expressing her deep condolences remarked in her message " (Shyama) Singh served the people with immense dedication and her noteworthy contributions to the well-being of the people of Aurangabad shall be never be forgotten.” The Bihar Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unite ...

in his condolence message said Singh was a popular politician and a noted social worker.

References

Sources

* ''Mere Sansmaran'', an autobiography by Dr. Anugrah Narayan Sinha * Anugrah Abhinandan Granth samiti. 1947 '' Anugrah Abhinandan Granth.''

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

. * Anugrah Narayan centenary year celebration Committee. 1987. '' Bihar Bibhuti : Vayakti Aur Kriti '',

. * Bimal Prasad (editor). 1980. ''A Revolutionary's Quest: Selected Writings of Jayaprakash Narayan.'' Oxford University Press,

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 ...