Bali Ram Bhagat
11thGovernor of Rajasthan
In office 30 June 1993 – 1 May 1998
Preceded by	Dhanik Lal Mandal(Additional charge)
Succeeded by	Darbara Singh
8th Governor ofHimachal Pradesh
In office 11 February 1993 – 29 June 1993
Preceded by	Surendra Nath(Additional charge)
Succeeded by	Gulsher Ahmed
13th External Affairs Minister ofIndia
In office 25 September 1985 – 12 May 1986
Preceded by	Rajiv Gandhi
Succeeded by	P. Shiv Shankar
6thSpeaker of the Lok Sabha
In office 15 Jan 1976 – 25 Mar 1977
Deputy	G.G. Swell
Preceded by	G. S. Dhillon
Succeeded by	N. Sanjiva Reddy
Personal details
Born	(1922-10-07)7 October 1922 Patna,Bihar,British India
Died	2 January 2011(2011-01-02) (aged 88) New Delhi,India
Spouse	Vidya Bhagat ​ (m. 1944)​
Children	2 (1 son and 1 daughter)
Parent	Ham Rup Bhagat (father)

Bali Ram Bhagat (7 October 1922 – 2 January 2011) was an Indian politician and member of theIndian National Congress (INC). He has served asMember of Parliament (MP) inLok Sabha representingPatna-cum-Shahabad from 1952 to 1957 andShahabad (Arrah) from 1957 to 1977. Bhagat has also served as the 6thSpeaker of the Lok Sabha and 13thForeign Minister of India.

BR Bhagat was born into a wealthyYadav family inPatna,Bihar on 7 October 1922. His family was originally from Dashara village inSamastipur district.^[1] He joined the Indian National Congress in 1939 during theIndian independence movement and participated in theQuit India movement. He received a bachelor's degree fromPatna College and obtained a master's degree in economics fromPatna University.^[2]

After independence, Bali Ram Bhagat served as the Member of Parliament (MP) fromPatna-cum-Shahabad in the1st Lok Sabha (1952-1957) and thenShahabad for four terms (1957-1977).^[3] Bhagat lost his seat toChandradeo Prasad Verma in the1977 general election, where the Congress lost power in India for the first time.^[4] He won as MP fromSitamarhi in 1980 andArrah in 1984.

Between 1963 and 1967, Bhagat served as the Minister of State for Planning as well as Finance. He was a Minister in the Ministry of Defence for a short period in 1967 before he became the Minister of State for External Affairs in the same year. Bhagat became a member of the cabinet in 1969 when he was appointed the Minister of Foreign Trade and Supply. Later, he was the Minister of Steel and Heavy Engineering for a period of eight months.^[3]

Bhagat served as theSpeaker of Lok Sabha from 1976 to 1977, during the turbulent final year ofIndira Gandhi’s first reign as prime minister.^[3] He served as Minister for External Affairs of India under Indira's son,Rajiv Gandhi, from 1985 to 1986.Baliram Bhagat lost the Lok Sabha elections in 1989 and 1991. Following these defeats, the Congress compensated it by appointing him asGovernor of Rajasthan (1993–1998), and he also served briefly asGovernor of Himachal Pradesh(1993).After the end of his term as Governor in 1998, he continued his involvement in public life.

As his political successor, he supported his nephew, namely, Nawal Kishore Choudhary who was a local village chief (mukhiya) for several decades from Bharko panchayat falling under Amarpur legislative assembly and was nominated as a Congress candidate in the 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly election fromAmarpur, Bihar Assembly constituency but unfortunately lost.Bali Ram Bhagat died in New Delhi on 2 January 2011.^[2]

Bali Ram Bhagat has served seven times asLok Sabha MP.^[5]

He lost the6th and9th Lok Sabhaelection fromArrah in 1977 and 1989 respectively. Bhagat also lost the10th Lok Sabha election fromSamastipur in 1991.

Note

• ThePatna-cum-Shahabad constituency was renamed asShahabad constituency in the2nd Lok Sabha (1957).
• TheShahabad constituency was renamed asArrah constituency in the6th Lok Sabha (1977).

• 1922 births
• 2011 deaths
• India MPs 1952–1957
• India MPs 1957–1962
• India MPs 1962–1967
• India MPs 1967–1970
• India MPs 1971–1977
• India MPs 1980–1984
• India MPs 1984–1989
• Commerce and industry ministers of India
• Governors of Himachal Pradesh
• Governors of Rajasthan
• Indian National Congress (U) politicians
• Indian National Congress politicians from Bihar
• Lok Sabha members from Bihar
• Members of the Cabinet of India
• Ministers for external affairs of India
• People from Arrah
• People from Samastipur district
• Politicians from Patna
• Speakers of the Lok Sabha
• Steel ministers of India

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use Indian English from June 2015
• All Wikipedia articles written in Indian English
• Use dmy dates from June 2015