Former Union minister and chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) Ajit Singh, 82, passed away on Thursday in a Gurgaon hospital of COVID19 related complications. His son, Jayant Chaudhary confirmed the demise of his father early on Thursday morning.
Mr. Singh, the son of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, was one of the first IITians in Indian politics, and became Rajya Sabha member in 1986 as his father fell ill and fought and won from the Baghpat seat from 1989 till 2009.
After his own father’s demise he headed the Lok Dal (A), and the Janata Party and through the vissitudes of coalition politics of the 1990s allied with the Janata Dal, BJP and Congress before going it on his own in 2014. He was minister for agriculture in the Vajpayee government between 2001-2003, and minister for civil aviation in the second term of the UPA government. His politics stemmed from the rural hinterland of Wester Uttar Pradesh especially the agrarian communities including Jats and Muslims, a constituency that his father Chaudhary Charan Singh had built in the 1960s.
Tributes poured in from all quarters at the demise of Mr Singh, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that Mr Singh was “devoted to the interests of farmers all his life”.