Ajit Singh (politician)


Chaudhary Ajit Singh is an Indian politician. He is the founder and chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, a political party recognized in western part of state of Uttar Pradesh, and son of former Prime Minister of India late Chaudhary Charan Singh.

Political career

Ajit singh was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 1986 after his father and former prime minister Ch Charan Singh became Ill. He was the President of Lok Dal and Janata Party during 1987 and 1988, respectively. 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 congress. Ajit Singh brought in most political strength from Uttar Pradesh to VP Singh during that election. At several occasions throughout his political career, Ajit Singh has been a significant political figure in government formations as well as alliances.
He was elected to Lok Sabha from Baghpat in 1989. He was Minister of Industry in V. P. Singh's cabinet from December 1989 to November 1990. He was re-elected to Lok Sabha in 1991 Indian general election. He served as Minister of Food in P. V. Narasimha Rao's cabinet.
Ajit Singh was re-elected in 1996 but lost in 1998. He then founded Rashtriya Lok Dal and was re-elected in 1998 1999, 2004 and 2009.
From 2001 to 2003, he was Minister of Agriculture in Atal Bihari Vajpayee'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.
He was the candidate of muzaffarnagar from RLD and he lost to Sanjeev Balyan of BJP by a margin of 6526 votes.

Education

He is a B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur and 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 is married to Radhika Singh, and has one son and two daughters. His son Jayant Chaudhary, was a member of 15th Lok Sabha from Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.