Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh

President of Bharatiya Janata Party	December 24, 2005 - December 24, 2009
Date of Birth	(1951-07-10) July 10, 1951
Place of Birth	Bhabhaura-Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh, India
Political Party	Bharatiya Janata Party
Profession	Physics lecturer

Rajnath Singh (born July 10, 1951) is a prominent Indian politician who has served the country in many capacities. Beginning his career as a physics lecturer, Singh used his long-term connections with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in order to become involved with the Janata Party. That involvement led him to numerous official positions within his home state of Uttar Pradesh. Among his roles have been a period as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, as a Cabinet Minister in the National Democratic Alliance regime and as National President of one the country's major political organisations, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was previously president of the BJP youth wing and the BJP's unit in his home state.

Early life

Rajnath Singh was born in the small village of Bhabhaura in the Chandauli district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in a Rajput family . His father was Ram Badan Singh and his mother was Gujarati Devi. He was born into a simple farmer's family in the region and went on to secure a masters degree in physics, acquiring first division results from the Gorakhpur University. Rajnath Singh had been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh since 1964, at the age of 13 and remained connected with the organization even when he took up his job of a physics lecturer in Mirzapur. In 1974, he was appointed secretary for the Mirzapur unit of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, a Hindutva based political party.

Early political career

In 1975, aged 24, Rajnath Singh was appointed District President of the Jana Sangh. In 1977, he was elected Member of Legislative Assembly from the Mirzapur constituency. His rapid rise in politics at this young age also led him to leadership in the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing. In 1984, he became state president of the youth wing, in 1986 he was appointed national general secretary of the youth wing. In 1988, he finally rose to the position of National President in the BJP youth and was also elected into the Uttar Pradesh legislative council.

In 1991, he became Education Minister in the first BJP government in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Major highlights of his tenure as Education Minister included rewriting history texts and incorporating vedic mathematics into the syllabus. In April 1994, he was elected into the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Indian Parliament) and he became involved with the Advisory committee on Industry (1994–96), Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Agriculture, Business Advisory Committee, House Committee and the Committee on Human Resource Development.

On March 25, 1997, he became the President of the BJP's unit in Uttar Pradesh and in 1999 he became the Union Cabinet Minister for Surface Transport. In the NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Rajnath Singh took the job of Minister of Agriculture and was faced with the difficult task of maintaining one of the most volatile areas of India's economy.

He was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 28 October 2000 – 8 March 2002.

On December 24, 2005, following the resignation of Lal Krishna Advani, he was unanimously elected as the BJP's National President. He was re-elected in November 2006 with no challenges to his candidacy, and 15 nominations from the committee. However he was succeeded by Nitin Gadkari in 2009.

Former BJP President

After BJP lost power in the 2004 general elections, it was forced to sit in the Opposition. After the resignation of prominent figure Lal Krishna Advani, and the murder of strategist Pramod Mahajan, Rajnath Singh sought to rebuild the party by focusing on the most basic Hindutva ideologies. He has announced his position of "no compromise" in relation to the building of a Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He commends the rule of Vajpayee as Prime Minister, pointing towards all the developments the National Democratic Alliance made for the ordinary people of India.

Although his leadership started off with disappointing results for the party in five states in May 2006, he was revitalized by the success of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh's municipal elections later that year, and in early 2007 he oversaw BJP victories in the states of Uttarakhand and Punjab, as well as municipal elections in Delhi, Chandigarh and across Maharashtra. The Assembly elections in Gujarat added a new dimension to the string of successful electoral victories by the BJP in 2007. In 2008 the BJP formed its first ever Government in south India when it rose to power in Karnataka. The year 2008 also saw BJP registering thumping victories in Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarsh.It was indeed the most successful phase in the BJP's history when it managed to win 5 Assembly elections(Uttranchal, Punjab, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh) in a row.

During his term, the BJP organisation was strengthened at the grassroots. He followed a policy of consensus and paid special attention to constitution of booth committees in the party.

External links

• BJP India