Petar Tanchev Zhelev (Bulgarian: Петър Танчев Желев) (1920–1992) was a Bulgarian politician, Secretary (Chairman) of the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union (BAP) from 1974 to 1989, and a deputy in the I (1950–1953), II (1954–1957), III (1958–1961), IV (1962–1965), V (1966–1971), VI (1971–1976), VII (1976–1981), VIII (1981–1986) and IX National Assemblies (1986–1990). He was born in 1920 in a village near Haskovo. In 1935, he became a member of the left wing of the Bulgarian Agrarian Youth Union and in between 1940 and 1942, he was arrested for his political activity. In 1944, he graduated in la