Ram Chandra Vikal

Ram Chandra Vikal (8 November 1916 in Nayagaon Basantpur, Ghaziabad district – 26 June 2011) was a Gurjar leader, freedom fighter and deputy chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India. He was an agriculture minister and was elected twice as a Member of Parliament as well as a five-time Member of the Legislative Assembly. He had charge of Jammu and Kashmir during the governments of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. He was also a well known yoga teacher.

Vikal was influenced by the ideology of the Arya Samaj from childhood and participated in the freedom movement from his student days. An agriculturist, Vikal championed the cause of the farmers, labourers and backward classes, and was instrumental in implementing various social welfare measures such as getting irrigation rates reduced and land revenue written off.

He also contributed to the setting up of various infrastructure facilities in the towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh by having bridges and railway lines constructed. He was also instrumental in getting several primary schools and colleges set up, establishing agricultural universities in Faizabad and Kanpur and a medical college in Meerut. Vikal was awarded the Degree of Vidyavachaspati, Honoris Causa, by the Gurukul Mahavidyalaya, Jwalapur (Haridwar).

Ram Chandra Vikal started his legislative career as a Member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1952 and was Member of that Assembly from 1952 to 1971. He held various ministerial posts — Forests and Animal Husbandry, Excise, Agriculture,Irrigation, Jail and Fisheries  – in the government of Uttar Pradesh from 1969 to 1970. He was also Leader of the Opposition in the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1967 and Chairman of State Farms Corporation of India from 1982–84 .

Vikal was a Member of the Fifth Lok Sabha from Bagpat and represented Uttar Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha from April, 1984 to April, 1990.