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Rashtriya Lok Dal Chief and former Union Minister Chaudhary Ajit Singh, passed away on Thursday, 6 May, after battling COVID-19. He was 82 years old.
The leader was admitted to a Gurugram hospital on Tuesday, 4 May, after his lung condition deteriorated.
He had tested positive for COVID-19 on 20 April.
"Chaudhary Ajit Singh ji was diagnosed as COVID positive on April 20. He battled his condition till the very end and breathed his last today morning", wrote his son, and former MP, Jayant Chaudhary on Twitter.
A Techie & Son of a Former PM
Chaudhary Ajit Singh was the son of former Indian Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. He has served as a Member of Parliament for eight terms, including one term as the Member of Rajya Sabha. He also served as Union Minister four times.
He was an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He worked in the computer industry in the United States for 15 years, before returning to India and continuing his father's political legacy.
He was then elected to the Rajya Sabha for the first time in 1986.
In his seven terms as Lok Sabha MP, he has represented his family stronghold of Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh. His party, the RLD, holds sway in the Jat-dominated areas of western Uttar Pradesh.
Through the span of his career, Singh has moved from the Lok Dal to the Congress, to the BJP and Samajwadi Party.
When he was with the Janata Dal, Ajit Singh was inducted as the Union Minister of industry in the VP Singh government. He then joined the PV Narasimha Rao government as a food minister but resigned from the Congress in 1996.
Thereafter, he formed the RLD and joined the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government as the agriculture minister in 2001.
He was part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government till May 2003.
After that he joined the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) after forging an alliance with the Congress for Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.
Condolences Pour In
Singh's death has been condoled by both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President Ram Nath Kovind.
"He always raised his voice for farmers. As a public representative and a minister, he left a mark on the politics of the country. My condolences to his family and well-wishers", the President said in a tweet.
"The death of former Union Minister Chaudhary Ajit Singh ji is extremely sad. He was always devoted to the interests of farmers,” wrote PM Modi on Twitter.
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