Shankar Dayal Sharma

Shankar Dayal Sharma
Official Portrait, 1992
9th President of India
In office 25 July 1992 – 25 July 1997
Prime Minister	P. V. Narasimha Rao Atal Bihari Vajpayee H. D. Deve Gowda I. K. Gujral
Vice President	K. R. Narayanan
Preceded by	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
Succeeded by	K. R. Narayanan
8th Vice President of India
In office 3 September 1987 – 25 July 1992
President	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
Prime Minister	Rajiv Gandhi V. P. Singh
Preceded by	R. Venkataraman
Succeeded by	K. R. Narayanan
Governor of Maharashtra
In office 3 April 1986 – 2 September 1987
Chief Minister	Shankarrao Chavan
Preceded by	Kona Prabhakar Rao
Succeeded by	Kasu Brahmananda Reddy
Governor of Punjab Administrator of Chandigarh
In office 26 November 1985 – 2 April 1986
Chief Minister	Surjit Singh Barnala
Preceded by	Hokishe Sema
Succeeded by	Siddhartha Shankar Ray
13th Governor of Andhra Pradesh
In office 29 August 1984 – 26 November 1985
Chief Minister	Nadendla Bhaskara Rao N. T. Rama Rao
Preceded by	Thakur Ram Lal
Succeeded by	Kumudben Manishankar Joshi
1st Chief Minister of Bhopal
In office 31 March 1952 – 31 October 1956
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Cabinet Minister, Government of Madhya Pradesh
In office 1956–1967
Departments	Education, Law, Public Works, Revenue, Industry and Commerce.
President of Indian National Congress
In office 1972–1974
Preceded by	Jagjivan Ram
Succeeded by	Devakanta Barua
Personal details
Born	(1918-08-19)19 August 1918 Bhopal, Bhopal State, British India (now Madhya Pradesh, India)
Died	26 December 1999(1999-12-26) (aged 81) New Delhi, India
Political party	Indian National Congress
Spouse	Vimala Sharma ​ (m. 1950)​
Children	2 sons, 2 daughters
Alma mater	University of Allahabad (MA) University of Lucknow (LLM) University of Cambridge (PhD) University of London (DPA) Lincoln's Inn Harvard University
Profession	Lawyer, politician
Signature

Shankar Dayal Sharma (Hindi pronunciation: [ˈʃəŋkəɾ d̪əˈjaːl ˈʃəɾmaː] ^ⓘ; 19 August 1918 – 26 December 1999) was an Indian lawyer and politician from the state of Madhya Pradesh who served as the ninth president of India, from 1992 to 1997.

Born in Bhopal, Sharma studied at Agra, Allahabad and Lucknow and received a doctorate in constitutional law from the University of Cambridge and was a bar-at-law from Lincoln's Inn and a Brandeis Fellow at Harvard University. During 1948–49, Sharma was one of the leaders of the movement for the merger of Bhopal State with India, a cause for which he served eight months' imprisonment.

A member of the Indian National Congress party, Sharma was chief minister (1952–56) of Bhopal State and served as a cabinet minister (1956–1971) in the government of Madhya Pradesh holding several portfolios. Sharma was president of the Bhopal State Congress Committee (1950–52), Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee (1966–68) and of the All India Congress Committee (1972–74). He served as Union Minister for Communications (1974–77) under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Twice elected to the Lok Sabha, Sharma served as governor of Andhra Pradesh (1984–85), Punjab (1985–86) and Maharashtra (1986–87) before being elected unopposed as the eighth vice president of India in 1987.

Sharma was elected president of India in 1992 and served till 1997 during which period he dealt with four prime ministers, three of whom he appointed in the last year of his presidency. He was assertive with the P. V. Narasimha Rao ministry, forcing his government to sack a governor, instigating a strong response to the demolition of the Babri Masjid and refusing to sign ordinances presented to him on the eve of elections. His appointment of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as prime minister on the grounds of him being the leader of the largest party in the Parliament attracted widespread criticism especially as Vajpayee was forced to resign in only thirteen days without facing a vote of confidence. Sharma's appointment of H. D. Deve Gowda and I. K. Gujral as prime ministers followed the assurance of support to their candidature by the Congress party but neither government lasted more than a year. Sharma chose not to seek a second term in office and was succeeded to the presidency by K. R. Narayanan.

Sharma died in 1999 and was accorded a state funeral. His samadhi lies at Karma Bhumi in Delhi.