Rajnath Singh : The very man of
people and farmers
From Our Correspondent

Shri Rajnath Singh was born on July 10, 1951 in village Bhabhora, Tehsil Chakia of district Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in a simple farmer’s family of the Late Ram Badan Singh and the Late Gujarati Devi. A brilliant student throughout, he secured his Master’s Degree in Physics from the Gorakhpur University in first class.

Shri Rajnath Singh started his career as a Lecturer of Physics in the K.B. Post Graduate College, Mirzapur (UP). Having been associated with the RSS right from 1964, he served it in various capacities. He was the organisation secretary of ABVP in the Gorakhpur Division from 1969 to 1971. In 1974 he was appointed the Secretary of Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s Mirzapur Unit. Deeply inspired by late Jai Prakash Narain, he joined the J.P. movement and was appointed its District Convenor.

In 1975 he was appointed as District President of Jana Sangh. Shri Rajnath Singh was jailed in 1975 during Emergency and remained in jail for about 20 months till elections in 1977. Though his mother passed away during his detention period, he was forced to stay in the jail. In 1977 General Elections, he was elected as M.L.A. from the Mirzapur constituency.

During his illustrious political career, Rajnath Singh has held a number of important assignments in BJYM, UP State Unit as well as in the National Executive. In 1983 he was appointed as the State BJP Secretary in Uttar Pradesh. In 1984 he became the State President of BJYM. During his tenure as BJYM State President, he wrote a book on the causes of and solutions to unemployment problem. In 1986, he was appointed as the National General Secretary of BJYM.

Two years later, he rose to become the National President of BJYM and extensively toured the country energising the youth. He also became a Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council (1988-94) and a Member of BJP’s National Executive. In 1990 he was appointed as BJP’s State Vice President in Uttar Pradesh and played a dynamic role in the State party affairs at that time. In 1991, when the first BJP government was formed in UP, Shri Rajnath Singh was appointed as the Education Minister. Anti-copying Act, inclusion of vedic mathematics in syllabus, removal of distorted portions of history from textbooks were major highlights of his stint as UP Education Minister.

In April 1994, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha. He became a member of 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. He was also appointed as the chief whip of BJP in the Rajya Sabha.

On March 25, 1997 he was appointed as President of UP State BJP. During his tenure he played a pivotal role in securing new allies and extended the roots and reach of BJP down to the village level.

A fine orator, grass root organiser, effective administrator and dexterous political manager, Rajnath Singh was inducted in the Union Cabinet as Minister for Surface Transport on November 22, 1999. Later he became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in 2000 when he made his name for good governance. Unfortunately the BJP could not get majority in 2002 Assembly Elections. Shri Singh joined the Central BJP organisation as General Secretary but soon became the Union Agriculture Minister in Shri Atalji led NDA Government. He was serving the party as General Secretary when he became the party president on December31, 2005.

Shri Rajnath Singh is keenly interested in reading books relating to History, Culture and Science and Technology. He is married to Smt Savitri Singh and has two sons and a daughter.