text: Sharma was president of the Bhopal State Congress during 1950 to 1952. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Bhopal from Berasia in the elections of 1952 and became chief minister of Bhopal State in 1952. In 1956, following the reorganization of states, Bhopal State was merged with the new state of Madhya Pradesh. Sharma played an important role in retaining Bhopal as the capital of this new state. In the elections of 1957, 1962 and 1967, Sharma was elected to the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Udaipura as a candidate of the Congress party. During this time he was a cabinet minister in the Madhya Pradesh government and variously held portfolios of education, law, public works, industry and commerce and revenue. As minister for education, he emphasized secular pedagogy in schools and textbooks were revised to avoid religious bias.
  During 1967–68, he was president of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee and served as general secretary of the party from 1968 to 1972. During the split in 1969, Sharma sided with Indira Gandhi and was removed from party posts by the President S. Nijalingappa but reappointed by Gandhi in her faction of the party.
  Parliamentary career
  Sharma was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhopal in the general elections of 1971. The following year, he was made the president of the Indian National Congress by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Prior to his appointment as president, Sharma had been a member of the Congress Working Committee since 1967 and general secretary of the Congress party from 1968. As president, Sharma launched a public campaign against the CIA accusing it of being actively involved in fomenting violence in India.
  In October 1974, Sharma was appointed Minister of Communications in the Indira Gandhi ministry and was succeeded as president of the Congress by D. K. Barooah. He remained in that post until his defeat in the general election of 1977 by Arif Baig. Sharma was reelected from Bhopal in the general election of 1980.
  Gubernatorial tenures (1984–1987)
  Governor of Andhra Pradesh (1984–1985)