Major Vijai Singh Mankotia

Major Vijai Singh Mankotia died on the morning of Tuesday, 29 September 2026, at his ancestral home in Tiara, Kangra district, Himachal Pradesh. The Tribune reported that the veteran politician and former Himachal Pradesh cabinet minister died of a heart attack. He was 87.

The news was confirmed the same day by regional outlets including Rozana Spokesman, which described him as a five-time MLA from Shahpur and two-time minister who had remained active in Himachal politics for about four decades. Coverage recalled his long rivalry with former chief minister Virbhadra Singh, who had died in 2021, and his reputation as a firebrand Rajput leader from Kangra.

As of the first reports, no detailed medical statement beyond the heart attack account, and no formal announcement of funeral arrangements, had been published. Condolences were reported from political and social circles across Kangra and the wider state.

Major Vijai Singh Mankotia was born in Tiara village in the Kangra Valley of what is now Himachal Pradesh. News reports at his death put his age at 87, placing his birth around 1938 or 1939. He was educated at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla, one of Asia's oldest boarding schools and a training ground for many Himachal political figures.

According to a HimbuMail profile of his career, he cracked the UPSC examination in 1959, ranking fifth in the All-India merit list, and joined the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun in 1960. He led the IMA contingent in the 1962 Republic Day Parade and, on passing out in June 1962, received the Sword of Honour and Gold Medal along with distinctions in debate, essays and sports. He was commissioned into the 1/1 Gorkha Rifles.

His military service included active duty in the 1962 war with China, the 1965 conflict with Pakistan and the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War. Postings reported in later profiles included adjutant at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai and staff work with the Royal Bhutan Army. He took premature retirement from the Army in 1976 with the rank of Major, a title he kept as part of his public name for the rest of his life. He then spent about five years as an Air India executive before entering electoral politics.

Mankotia entered the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1982, winning Shahpur in Kangra district as an Independent. In 1985 he joined the Indian National Congress and retained the seat. After the Congress lost power at the Centre he sided with V. P. Singh's Jan Morcha and, around 1989 to 1990, left Congress for the Janata Dal, winning Shahpur again in 1990.

He returned to Congress and won Shahpur in 1993 and 2003, losing in 1998. In Virbhadra Singh's Congress governments he served as a cabinet minister with portfolios including Tourism, Civil Aviation and Law. He was dropped from the ministry in the late 1990s after accusing ministers close to Virbhadra Singh of corruption, restored in 2003, and dropped again in 2004 when cabinet size was cut under the 91st constitutional amendment. He later held roles including vice-chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation and chairman of the Himachal Pradesh Tourism Board, posts from which he was also removed after further clashes with the chief minister.

In 2006 to 2007 he quit Congress again and released audio tapes purporting to show financial wrongdoing by Virbhadra Singh and Pratibha Singh, an episode known as the CD scandal. The matter went to the High Court, which acquitted Virbhadra Singh. Mankotia contested the 2007 assembly election on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket from Dharamsala and lost. He returned to Congress for an unsuccessful 2012 Shahpur bid, ran as an Independent in 2017 after being denied a ticket, and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party before the 2022 election without contesting. The Tribune summarised his path as more than four decades of association with different political formations and an enduring presence in Himachal public life.

Mankotia made his home in his native Tiara village in Kangra district. Profiles of his life record that he lived there with his wife, Jaishree Kumari, who came from Kota Kunadi in Rajasthan. They had a son, Suryaveer Singh, and a daughter, Samyukta Kumari.

Away from electoral office he wrote three books, The Patterns of Destiny, Turmoil and Upheaval. He also served for many years as president of the Indian Ex-Services League in Himachal Pradesh, a role later profiles described as lasting about four decades, and spoke publicly on veterans' concerns and other causes. He kept the style of a soldier in public life: direct speech, a taste for confrontation, and a lasting identification with the Army rank he had earned as a young officer.

Mankotia left a complicated but unmistakable mark on Himachal Pradesh politics. For voters in Shahpur he was a five-time MLA and a local power who could win as an Independent, a Congressman or a Janata Dal candidate. For the wider state he was the soldier politician who would not stay quiet, willing to leave parties, accuse a chief minister and return again.

The CD scandal of 2007 fixed his name in the public memory even though the High Court later cleared Virbhadra Singh. Supporters saw integrity and courage; critics saw restlessness and a habit of switching sides. Indian Express once called him the Congress leader with itchy feet. Both readings acknowledge the same fact: for more than forty years he remained a force that Himachal's main parties had to reckon with.

He is also remembered as an Army officer of the 1962 generation who carried military discipline into civilian life, as an advocate for ex-servicemen, and as an author. In Kangra's political story, Major Vijai Singh Mankotia stands as a figure who made confrontation a form of public service, for better and for worse, and who never quite left the stage until his death at 87.