Chaudhary Ajit Singh (12 February 1939 – 6 May 2021) was an Indian farmer leader and politician. He was the founder and chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a political party recognised in the state of Uttar Pradesh. He was son of the former

Prime Minister of India The prime minister of India (IAST: ) is the head of government of the Republic of India. Executive authority is vested in the prime minister and their chosen Council of Ministers, despite the president of India being the nominal head of the ...

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 tested positive for COVID-19 and was subsequently admitted to a hospital in Gurugram. 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 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 to ...

'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, prime minister P.V Narasimha Rao and Finance Minister

Manmohan Singh Manmohan Singh (; born 26 September 1932) is an Indian politician, economist and statesman who served as the 13th prime minister of India from 2004 to 2014. He is also the third longest-serving prime minister after Jawaharlal Nehru and Indir ...

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 entered into politics in May 1986 by joining Lok Dal. He was made general secretary and a member of central parliamentary board of Lok Dal. Within months of joining politics, he removed Mulayam Singh Yadav from the position of Lok Dal legislature party leader in Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. Ajit Singh was first elected to Rajya Sabha (the upper house of Indian Parliament) 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 and became president of Janata Party. In 1989, he was General Secretary of Janata Dal after all the parties decided to merge under the leadership of VP Singh to take on the Indian National Congress. Ajit Singh brought in most political strength from Uttar Pradesh to VP Singh 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 lower house of Indian Parliament) from Baghpat in 1989. He was Minister of Industry in V. P. Singh's

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

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 Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao (28 June 1921 – 23 December 2004) was an Indian lawyer, statesman and politician who served as the 9th prime minister of India from 1991 to 1996. He is known for introducing various liberal reforms to Indi ...

. Ajit Singh was re-elected in 1996 as a Congress candidate but resigned from the party and Lok Sabha in 1996. He then founded

Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party ( ) was an Indian political party formed in 1996 by Ajit Singh. Within months of winning Baghpat Lok Sabha constituency from Congress ticket in 1996 Lok Sabha election, Ajit Singh resigned from Congress to form his ...

and was re-elected in a Baghpat 1997 by-election. In 1999, he relaunched his party with the name Rashtriya Lok Dal. He lost the 1998 election and was re-elected in 1999, 2004 and 2009. From 2001 to 2003, he was Minister of Agriculture in

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 ...

's government. After his party joined the ruling United Progressive Alliance 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 contested from Muzaffarnagar but lost to Sanjeev Balyan of BJP by a very small margin of 6526 votes.

Education

He had a Bachelor of Technology (Mechanical Engineering) from IIT Kharagpur and an M.S. from Illinois Institute of Technology. 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 one son and two daughters. His son,

Jayant Chaudhary Chaudhary Jayant Singh (born 27 December 1978) is an Indian politician and a current member of the Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh. He also served as member in 15th Lok Sabha from Mathura. He is the National Chairman of The Rashtriya Lok Dal Party ...

, was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.

Death

Singh tested positive for COVID-19 on 20 April 2021 and was admitted in a private hospital in Gurugram. He died on 6 May 2021 after developing COVID-19. At the time of death, he was 82 years old.

References

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External links