Rajiv Pratap Rudy (born 30 March 1962) is an Indian politician from the

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

, and a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

representing

Saran (Lok Sabha constituency) Saran Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 40 Lok Sabha (parliamentary) constituencies in Bihar state in eastern India. This constituency came into existence in 2008 as a part of the implementation of delimitation of parliamentary constituenc ...

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

. In 2014. Rudy became the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in Narendra Modi's government. Simultaneously he also shared Parliamentary Affairs department jointly with Minister of State, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. Rudy was a General Secretary of

, a position relinquished soon after he joined the government. Rudy is a trained pilot and holds a commercial pilot's license. He is featured in the

Limca Book of Records The ''Limca Book of Records'' is an annual reference book published in India documenting world records held by Indians. The records are further categorized into education, literature, agriculture, medical science, business, sports, nature, advent ...

as the only parliamentarian to fly a commercial aircraft, an Airbus-320 of Indigo airlines.

Early life

Rajiv Pratap Rudy was born to Vishwanath Singh and Prabha Singh on 30 March 1962 in Patna, Bihar. His ancestral village is

Amnour Amnour is a Block in Saran District of Bihar State, India. Amnour Block Headquarters is Amnour town. It belongs to Saran Division. It is located 32 km towards North from District headquarters Chhapra. And 52 km from State capital Patn ...

, Saran, Bihar. Rudy completed his school education from

St. Michael's High School, Patna , motto_translation = For God and Country , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic , denomination = Jesuits , patron = Michael the Archangel , established = , founder = Bishop Anast ...

. Later, he completed his pre-university and pre-engineering from

DAV College, Chandigarh DAV College is a co-educational college in Chandigarh, India. It was founded in 1958. Affiliated to the Panjab University, Chandigarh. The college offers various courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level. It is situated in Sector 10, Ch ...

. He completed his graduation in B.A. (Hons.) in Economics at Government College, Chandigarh. Later he also completed a degree in Law from

Panjab University Panjab University (PU) is a collegiate public state university located in Chandigarh, Punjab. Funded through both State and Union governments, it is considered a state university. It traces its origins to the University of the Punjab in Laho ...

in 1985 and studied post-graduation in Economics from Magadh University in 1987. Prior to joining politics, he was a lecturer of Economics in A.N. College, Patna though he was involved in student politics at

at Chandigarh when studying at Government College.

Political career

Rudy was the campaign in charge of Harmohan Dhawan, who was contesting from the Chandigarh Lok Sabha constituency in 1989. He was actively associated with former Prime Minister

Chandra Shekhar Chandra Shekhar ( 17 April 1927 – 9 August 2015) was an Indian politician who served as the 8th Prime Minister of India, between 10 November 1990 and 21 June 1991. He headed a minority government of a breakaway faction of the Janata Dal with ...

. Rudy was first elected in 1990 as a

Member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

of the

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated ...

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 ...

ticket from Taraiya at the young age of 28. He was elected to the

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-pas ...

- the lower house of the

Parliament of India The Parliament of India (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ) is the supreme legislative body of the Republic of India. It is a bicameralism, bicameral legislature composed of the president of India and two houses: the R ...

- as a candidate of the BJP. He was re–elected for a second term of Lok Sabha in 1999, from

Chapra (Lok Sabha constituency) Chapra Lok Sabha constituency was in Bihar and it existed until 2008, after which it was replaced by Saran constituency when delimitation was done. Vidhan Sabha segments Chapra (छपरा) Lok Sabha constituency comprises the following seve ...

for BJP. He then served as the Minister of State for Commerce, Trade & Industry and subsequently became Civil Aviation Minister with independent charge in the

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a centre-right to right-wing and conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was founded in 1998 and currently controls the government of India ...

government led by

Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee (; 25 December 1924 – 16 August 2018) was an Indian politician who served three terms as the 10th prime minister of India, first for a term of 13 days in 1996, then for a period of 13 months fr ...

. During that tenure, Rudy was in controversy of non-payment of his bills at Taj Exotica Resort & Spa,

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to th ...

, which he had to later pay. Rudy had earlier held the post of National Vice President of the

Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) (translation: Indian People's Youth Front) is the youth wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), one of the two major political parties in India. It was founded in 1978, and its first national president w ...

. He was the General Secretary and member of the BJP National Executive. Rudy lost to

Lalu Prasad Lalu Prasad Yadav (born 11 June 1948) is an Indian politician and president of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). He is a former Chief Minister of Bihar (1990-1997), a former Railway Minister of India (2004-2009), and a former Member of Parliam ...

in 2004 General elections in

. He was then elected to

Rajya Sabha The Rajya Sabha, wikisource:Constitution of India/Part V#Article 80, 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 legisl ...

from Bihar in 2010. He contested the 2014

Elections from

and defeated former Chief Minister of Bihar,

Rabri Devi Rabri Devi Yadav (born 1 January 1955) is an Indian politician who formerly served three terms as the Chief Minister of Bihar, the first and only woman till date to have held the office. She is a Member of Bihar Legislative Council (MLC), and ...

. following which he was sworn-in as Minister of State on 9 November 2014 and got Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship. In October 2015, Rajiv Pratap Rudy was in a controversy over sharing on Twitter a screenshot of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

's daily

Dawn Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ho ...

website carrying

Nitish Kumar Nitish Kumar (born 1 March 1951) is an Indian politician, who is serving as Chief Minister of Bihar since 22 February 2015, having previous held the office from 2005 to 2014 and for a short period in 2000. The leader of the Janata Dal (Unit ...

's ad of vote appeal during

2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election The Legislative Assembly election was held over five-phases in Bihar through October–November 2015 before the end of the tenure of the prior Legislative Assembly of Bihar on 29 November 2015. In April 2015, the Janata Parivar group (a group ...

, prompting JD(U) to launch a sharp attack on him and seek his immediate sacking. He submitted his resignation from the cabinet on 31/8/2017 prior to imminent reshuffle in September 2017. In May 2021, Rajiv Pratap Rudy was criticized when 30 unused ambulances were found parked at his

Vishw-Prabha community centre, even when Bihar was struggling under second wave of

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. These ambulances were purchased using funds from the

Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme ''Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme'' (MPLADS) is a scheme formulated by Government of India on 23 December 1993 that enables the members of parliaments (MP) to recommend developmental work in their constituencies with an emphas ...

(MPLADS). Jan Adhikar Party chief Pappu Yadav raided that community centre run by Rudy.

Personal life

Rudy married Neelam Pratap on 9 March 1991 at the age of 29. They have two daughters. Elder daughter Avshreya Rudy (born 1993) is a lawyer and also a polo player. His younger daughter Atisha Pratap Singh (born 2000) is a

kuchipudi Kuchipudi () ( Telugu: ) is one of the eight major Indian classical dances. It originates from a village named Kuchipudi in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Kuchipudi is a dance-drama performance, with its roots in the ancient Hindu Sa ...

dancer.

References

External links

* , - , - , - , -

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rudy, Rajiv Pratap Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Bihar Bihar People's Party politicians 1962 births Living people India MPs 1996–1997 India MPs 1999–2004 Rajya Sabha members from Bihar Lok Sabha members from Bihar India MPs 2014–2019 Civil aviation ministers of India Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Narendra Modi ministry People from Saran district India MPs 2019–present Panjab University alumni Magadh University alumni Bihari politicians