Sunder Lal Patwa was an Indian statesman, who served as the Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh and a cabinet minister in theGovernment of India. He was born in the village of Kukreshawar located between Manasa and Rampura in the Nimach District of Madhya Pradesh. He was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh twice, from 20 January 1980 to 17 February 1980 as member of Janata Party and from 5 March 1990 to 15 December 1992 as leader of Bharatiya Janta Party. He began his political career with Jana Sangh which merged with Janata Party in 1977. Later members owing allegiance to Jana Sangh'sHindutva ideology broke away from Janata Party in 1980 to form Bharatiya Janata Party.Patwa was first elected to Lok Sabha via bye-poll in Chhindwara in 1997 by defeating Congress strongman Kamal Nath in his home turf. He lost from Chhindwara in 1998 General Election. In 1999, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Hoshangabad constituency, and was minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government from 1999 to 2001. As a legislator, he was known as strict disciplinarian.

He was associated with Indore Rajya Praja Mandal since 1941, R.S.S. since 1942 and R.S.S. Vistarak, 1947-51. He was imprisoned for seven months for participating in R.S.S. movement in 1948 and was an active worker of Jana Sangh since 1951, Chairman of District Cooperative Bank, Director, State Cooperative Bank and State Cooperative Marketing Sangh and Treasurer, Jana Sangh from 1967-74. He was Detained under M.I.S.A. during Emergency from June 1975 to January 1977. He was awarded the "Vidhan Gaurav" in the All India Conference of Presiding Officers, 1989.

He died on 28 December 2016 in Bhopal due to a heart attack at the age of 92. He is survived by his wife and a full fledged joint family of 4 brothers and their sons and daughters. His mortal remains were cremated at his home village Kukdeshwar in the presence of several veteran BJP leaders and the public who had gathered to pay last tributes to their departed leader. He was awarded Padma Vibhushan posthumously in 2017 by the Government of India.