strong hold, the Udhampur district, and provided two cabinet ministers as part of a ruling collation government along with PDP and Congress party. Until his death, he was reported as a potential candidate for the 2022 Indian vice presidential election and the presidential election. Early life Bhim Singh was born Kunwar (Prince) Bhim Singh on 17 August 1941 in Bhugterian, Ramnagar in the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir during the British Raj of India. His father was Thakur (Prince) Birbal Singh, a serviceman who served the Allies of World War II and later the Indian Army post-independence. Bhim Singh was the great-grandson of celebrated General Zorawar Singh, referred to by historians as the “Napoleon of India,” for his 19th century conquests of Ladakh, Baltistan, Skardu and the heartlands of Tibet. In 1951, Bhim Singh's father had thousands of acres of land in Ramnagar forcibly taken with no compensation by the government of prime minister Sheikh Abdullah, leaving he and his eleven other siblings to starve in poverty as revenge against the Dogra dynasty, whose ruler had previously imprisoned prime minister Abdullah. He was first sent to prison in 1953 while still a student after he had thrown confectionery at prime minister Abdullah during a visit to his school by him. At the time Bhim Singh's father Thakur Birbal was rallying against the government's land reforms in Jammu with Prem Nath Dogra and his anti-Abdullah Jammu Praja Parishad party. As a college student Bhim Singh was a political activist going on hunger strike as early as 1959. In 1961, Bhim Singh was arrested following the death of Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir in April 1961. He had led thousands of students from GGM Science College Jammu, in protest against ex Crown Prince Karan Singh and prime minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, who had refused to fly the flag at half mast. Bhim Singh had led the college students to capture the Secretariat building, and climbed the roof, to fly the flag at half mast in honour of his deceased king. Bhim Singh managed to tear down the Jammu and Kashmir flag while armed police fired live ammunition at him. In the aftermath Bhim Singh was arrested by the deputy inspector general of police, and imprisoned in Katua and later Reasi jails. He was imprisoned for over six months from 1961 to 1962 in Jammu Central Jail, where he shared