Bhopal: A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart and a hardcore Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) activist since his student days, Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Prakash Gupta will be remembered for his tenacity in rising to the top in the rugged political battle ground of Uttar Pradesh before moving to the Raj Bhawan a year ago.

Born on October 26, 1923 in Sukwan-Dhukwan village in Jhansi district, he was active in the freedom struggle in his student days and later joined the RSS.

Gupta had dropped out of high school in 1942 to participate in the freedom struggle, but came back to study and completed his post graduation in Mathematics from the Allahabad University.

An RSS pracharak since 1946, he took part in the 'Satyagraha' to lift the ban on RSS in 1948 and was associated with the movement to ban cow slaughter in 1954.

Gupta went to jail several times - first during the freedom struggle in 1942, then protesting ban on RSS in 1948 and again in 1954 for demanding ban on cow slaughter and finally during the Emergency under MISA.

In 1960, Gupta was moved to the Jan Sangh as its leader in the Lucknow Municipal Corporation and rose to the post of Deputy Mayor in 1964.

Gupta was elected as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council in 1964 and became the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister in the first non-Congress Government formed in the State by Choudhary Charan Singh in 1967. The Samyukta Vidhayak Dal Government was also the first experiment in coalition politics in the State.

A simple man, Gupta had to wait for 33 years before being appointed as Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in 1999 replacing Kalyan Singh.

"Dark Horse," "a non-descript old timer", "simple person who could be bypassed without attracting a second look." That was how newspapers described him when he became the Chief Minister.

He rose from a simple RSS worker to a pracharak and organising secretary of the Central Uttar Pradesh.

In 1973, he was elected as the president of Uttar Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Jan Sangh.