He was elected to the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha from the Jubbal-Kotkhai constituency in nine times from 1957 to 1982.

He briefly served as the Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh from 28 January 1977 to 30 April 1977.

In the 1977 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election, he withstood the anti-Congress wave in elections conducted after The Emergency to win 60.2 percent of the votes in Jubbal-Kotkhai but saw the Congress reduced to 9 seats from the previous 53.

[2] On his return, NTR launched a popular campaign against Ram Lal and the Congress Party leading to President Zail Singh to dismiss Ram Lal on 29 August 1984 and NTR being re-appointed the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.

Thakur Ram Lal died on 6 July 2002 in Shimla following a massive cardiac arrest.