Partap Singh Kairon was born at Kairon in Tarn Taran district in 1901, took degrees at Michigan and Berkeley, worked as a labourer in California, and was involved with Ghadar circles there. He returned in 1929 and went into Congress politics.
He was Chief Minister of Punjab from 1956 to 1964, through the building of Chandigarh, the Bhakra project and the establishment of Punjab Agricultural University. Earlier, as Minister for Rehabilitation in the days after Partition, he handled the resettlement of the refugees from West Punjab. Punjab's post-Partition rebuilding is largely his administration.
He opposed the Punjabi Suba demand and dealt with the Akali agitation hard, which is the other half of his record and the reason he is judged very differently in different parts of Punjab.
He resigned in 1964 after a commission of inquiry into corruption allegations against him and his family.
He was shot dead on the Delhi road near Rasoi on 6 February 1965. The motive has never been established to anyone's satisfaction.
He was chief minister from 1956 to 1964 and the state's industrial and agricultural policy of that period is largely his. The groundwork for the tubewell push and for the agricultural university was laid under him.
He had studied in the United States, working his way through, and he came back with an idea of what a state government was for that was unusual in Indian politics then.
He resigned in 1964 after a commission of inquiry into corruption charges and was shot dead on the road in 1965. The case remains contentious.