Charan Singh belonged to the Jat community and established his political base in Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. After leading Bhartiya Lok Dal - that made for a major part of the Janatha coalition - he was appointed as the Deputy Prime Minister in 1977. Later, Charan Singh was forced to quit the governing wing of the Bhartiya Lok Dal due to a few problems that sprung up in the government.
Background
Charan singh was born into a Jat family in 1902 in village Noorpur of meerut district, Charan Singh entered politics as part of the Independence Movement. After independence he became particularly notable in the 1950s for opposing and winning a battle against Nehru's socialistic and collectivist land use policies, for the sake of the Indian Farmer, which endeared him to the agrarian communities throughout the nation, particularly in his native Uttar Pradesh.
Career
With a clean record in academics, in the year 1925, Charan Singh got his master's degree in Arts. He then acquired a degree in law in the year 1926 post which he decided to join the Indian National Congress. In 1929, Charan Singh shifted to Meerut and joined the Congress. He was first elected to the U.P. Legislative Assembly in 1937 from Chhatrauli and represented this constituency repeatedly in 1946, 1952, 1962 and 1967. The year 1951 saw Charan Singh being made the Cabinet Minister of U.P., with the Departments of Justice and Information being handed over to him. Due to a split in the Congress, he was chosen as the Chief Minister of U.P. in 1970. He was known for being an extremely gifted parliamentarian and a level-headed pragmatist. He was responsible for bringing the Land Holding Act 1960 during his reign as Chief Minister for he was an extremely dedicated public worker and a staunch believer in social justice. Charan Singh authored several books including 'Abolition of Zamindari', 'Co-operative Farming X-rayed', 'India's Poverty and its Solution', 'Peasant Proprietorship or Land to the Workers' and 'Prevention of Division of Holdings below a Certain Minimum'. In the year 1979, Charan Singh was chosen as the Prime Minister of India, although his reign did not last for too long owing to lack of support from the INC (Indian National Congress).