Sampurnanand

Sampurnanand Biography

Sampurnanand was an Indian politician from Uttar Pradesh who served as the second Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 1954 to 1960. Sampurnanand had the longest stretch of almost 6 years during his tenure as a chief minister. He was a scholar of Sanskrit and Hindi, and has also held portfolios, education, finance, and home labour during his tenure as a cabinet minister in the pre-independent era. After serving the term of CM of Maharastra, he also remained as the governor of Rajasthan, post the partition of states. Sampurnanand Sanskrit University is named after him. Rajasthan government started the Sri Sampurnanand Khula Bandi Shivir in his honour.

He was born on 1 January 1891 in Varanasi, Benares State in British India. After studies, he started his profession as a teacher, before he turned fully active in social work and politics. He was also involved with freedom struggle movement in the pre-independent era. He has also served terms in jail. He was deeply interested in ancient Hindu culture, Sanskrit and astrology, and was a scholar of Sanskrit and Hindi. While at jail, he used to entertain his mates with astrology, night sky etc.

He preceded Govind Ballabh Pant to become the second CM of Uttar Pradesh in 1954. He served for the terms - 28 December 1954 to 9 April 1957, followed by 10 April 1957 to 6 December 1960, thus serving 5 years and 344 days as Chief Minister. He was elected from Varanasi South. During his term as governor of Rajasthan, he was known as reformist governor. He promoted the idea of no-bars prison, where they were granted more freedom. He passed away in Varanasi on 10 January 1969.

Published: July 19, 2018

Updated: July 19, 2018