Narayanan entered politics at the request of Indira Gandhi and won three successive general elections to the Lok Sabha in 1984, 1989 and 1991, as a representative of the Ottapalam constituency in Palakkad, Kerala, on a Congress ticket.
K. R. Narayanan was elected as the Vice President of India on 21 August 1992, under the Presidency of Shankar Dayal Sharma.