Chaudhary Ajit Singh (12 February 1939 – 6 May 2021) was an Indian politician. He was a big JAT community leader. He was the founder and chief of the

Rashtriya Lok Dal Rashtriya Lok Dal (abbreviated as RLD) (translation: National People's Party) is a political party in India founded by Chaudhary Ajit Singh. He was carrying on the political legacy of his father and former Prime Minister of India, Chaudhary Ch ...

, a political party recognized in western part of state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

, and son of former Prime Minister of India late

Chaudhary Charan Singh Chaudhary Charan Singh (23 December 1902 – 29 May 1987) served as the 5th Prime Minister of India between 28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980. Historians and people alike frequently refer to him as the 'champion of India's peasants.' Charan S ...

. He had tested positive for COVID-19 on 22 April 2021 and was admitted in a Gurugram hospital. He died on 6 May 2021 after his condition deteriorated.

Political career

Chaudhary Ajit Singh was one of the most dynamic leaders of India, especially worked for farmers and on economic condition of India. When Chaudhary Ajit Singh was Commerce and Industry Minister in V. P. Singh's government, he drafted and tried to pass the bill against License Raj, which was unsuccessful since most of the parties were against it. When Chandra Shekhar Government fell, P.V Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister Manmohan Singh passed the same bill in the Parliament. This bill was one of the major reforms of Indian history better known as the Liberalization reforms of India, which opened the country for the Global market. Ajit Singh was first elected to

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, constitutionally the Council of States, is the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. , it has a maximum membership of 245, of which 233 are elected by the legislatures of the states and union territories using si ...

(the upper house of

Indian Parliament The Parliament of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the Rajya Sabha (Council of States) and the Lok Sabha (House of the ...

) in 1986 after his father and former prime minister Charan Singh became ill. He was the President of Lok Dal (A). In 1988, he merged Lok Dal (A) with

Janata Party The Janata Party ( JP, lit. ''People's Party'') was a political party that was founded as an amalgam of Indian political parties opposed to the Emergency that was imposed between 1975 and 1977 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of the Indian Nati ...

and became president of Janata Party. In 1989, he was General Secretary of

Janata Dal Janata Dal (“People’s Party”) was an Indian political party which was formed through the merger of Janata Party factions, the Lok Dal, Indian National Congress (Jagjivan), and the Jan Morcha united on 11 October 1988 on the birth annive ...

after all the parties decided to merge under the leadership of VP Singh to take on the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

. Ajit Singh brought in most political strength from Uttar Pradesh to

VP Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh (25 June 1931 – 27 November 2008), shortened to V. P. Singh, was an Indian politician who was the 7th Prime Minister of India from 1989 to 1990 and the 41st Raja Bahadur of Manda. He is India's only prime minister ...

during that election. At several occasions, Ajit Singh was a significant political figure in government formations as well as in alliances. One of the important movements was when Ajit Singh even threatened to leave the P.V. Narsimharao government because Manmohan Singh, the Finance Minister of India wanted to put the Indian farmers to also pay income tax, of which Chaudhary believed will destroy the Indian Farmers. He was elected to

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-p ...

(the lower house of

) from

Baghpat Baghpat is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is the administrative headquarters of Bagpat district, which was established in 1997. It is part of the National Capital Region. Etymology The original name of the city was ''Vyaghrap ...

in 1989. He was

Minister of Industry The industry minister is a cabinet position in a government. The title may refer to the head of the governmental department that specializes in industry. This position may also be responsible for trade and employment, areas that fall under the mi ...

in V. P. Singh's cabinet from December 1989 to November 1990. He was re-elected to Lok Sabha in

1991 Indian general election General elections were held in India on 20 May, 12 June and 15 June 1991 to elect the members of the 10th Lok Sabha, although they were delayed until 19 February 1992 in Punjab. No party could muster a majority in the Lok Sabha, resulting in t ...

. He served as Minister of Food in P. V. Narasimha Rao's cabinet. Ajit Singh was re-elected in 1996 as a Congress candidate but resigned from the party and Lok Sabha in 1996. He then founded

and was re-elected in a 1997 by-election. He lost the 1998 election and was re-elected in 1999, 2004 and 2009. From 2001 to 2003, he was

Minister of Agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister ...

in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government. After his party joined the ruling

United Progressive Alliance United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is a centre-left political alliance of predominantly left-leaning political parties in India. It was formed after the 2004 general election with support from left-leaning political parties when no single party ...

in 2011, he was Minister of Civil Aviation from December 2011 to May 2014. In

2019 Indian general election General elections were held in India in seven phases from 11 April to 19 May 2019 to elect the members of the 17th Lok Sabha. Votes were counted and the result was declared on 23 May. Around 912 million people were eligible to vote, and voter ...

, he was the candidate of

Muzaffarnagar Muzaffarnagar is a city under Muzaffarnagar District in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated midway on the Delhi - Haridwar/ Dehradun National Highway (NH 58) and is also well connected with the national railway network. It is ...

from RLD and lost to

Sanjeev Balyan Sanjeev Kumar Balyan (born 23 June 1972) is an Indian politician and member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He has been elected to Lok Sabha from the Muzaffarnagar (Lok Sabha constituency), Muzaffarnagar constituency in 2014 and 2019. He was app ...

of BJP by a margin of 6526 votes.

Education

He had a Bachelor of Technology (Mechanical Engineering) from

IIT Kharagpur Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a Public university, public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the Indi ...

and an M.S. from

Illinois Institute of Technology Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to 1890, the present name was adopted upon the merger of the Armour Institute and Lewis Institute in 1940. The university has prog ...

. He was a computer scientist by profession and one of the first Indians to work with IBM in the 1960s.

Personal life

He was married to Radhika Singh, and had only one son. His son, Jayant Chaudhary, was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha from

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...

, Uttar Pradesh.

Death

Singh tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

on 20 April 2021 and was admitted in a private hospital in

Gurugram Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

. He died on 6 May 2021 after developing

. At the time of death, he was 82 years old.

References

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External links