Highlights:
- According to his son’s tweet, Ajit Singh was diagnosed with Covid on April 20.
- Ajit Singh, a 7-time MP from Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, was the son of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.
- Throughout his political career, he was known for forming strong alliances that placed him on the side of the ruling side.
Ajit Singh, Ex-Union Minister and one of India’s most senior leaders, died on Thursday due to Covid-19 at the age of 82. According to his son Jayant Chaudhary’s tweet, the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader had been fighting Covid-19 since April 20.
— Jayant Chaudhary (@jayantrld) May 6, 2021
According to a tweet by his son Jayant Chaudhary, Ajit Singh was diagnosed with Covid on April 20. His tweet further said, “He fought his illness to the end and breathed his last this morning,”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among those who paid tribute to the politician, who is well-known to be a prominent voice of farmers.
“He was always dedicated to the cause of farmers. PM Modi wrote on a twitter, “He ably fulfilled many responsibilities at the centre.”
पूर्व केंद्रीय मंत्री चौधरी अजित सिंह जी के निधन से अत्यंत दुख हुआ है। वे हमेशा किसानों के हित में समर्पित रहे। उन्होंने केंद्र में कई विभागों की जिम्मेदारियों का कुशलतापूर्वक निर्वहन किया। शोक की इस घड़ी में मेरी संवेदनाएं उनके परिजनों और प्रशंसकों के साथ हैं। ओम शांति!
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 6, 2021
A seven-time MP, Ajit Singh was the Union Minister in the governments of Manmohan Singh, VP Singh, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and PV Narasimha Rao. He was an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and the Illinois Institute of Technology. He had a huge following in Uttar Pradesh, particularly in the western parts of the state, which are dominated by Jats.
Ajit Singh left the computer industry to return to India and join politics after his father, former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, became ill.
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Singh was elected to the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) in 1986. When his father died the following year, he was asked to take over as Lok Dal leader, but the party split due to internal squabbles. After that, Ajit Singh founded his own political party.
He went on to win several Lok Sabha elections in his father’s constituency of Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh. He only lost to Baghpat twice: once in 1998 and again in 2014. In 2019, he shifted to Muzaffarpur, Uttar Pradesh, but was defeated by the BJP.
Throughout his political career, he was known for forming strong alliances that placed him on the side of the ruling side.
In 1987 and 1988, he was the President of the Lok Dal (A) and the Janata Party. He joined the Janata Dal in 1989, when several parties agreed to join hands under the leadership of VP Singh to fight the Congress. Ajit Singh took over as Industries Minister while VP Singh was Prime Minister.
Later, he joined the Congress and served as Food Minister in the government of Narasimha Rao. He was elected as a Congress candidate in 1996, but left the party the following year to form the Rashtriya Lok Dal.
From 2001 to 2003, he served as Minister of Agriculture in the Vajpayee-led BJP government. In 2011, his party joined the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), and he was named Civil Aviation Minister.
