Ajit Singh, former Union minister and RLD leader, dies of COVID-19

Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief and former union minister Chaudhary Ajit Singh died of COVID-19 on Thursday, his son Jayant Chaudhary tweeted. The 82-year-old leader was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Gurgaon after testing positive for the virus on April 20.

(Also read: India records 412,262 cases of COVID-19, 3,980 deaths)

Condoling Singh’s death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “he was devoted to the interests of the farmers. He efficiently discharged the responsibilities of several departments at the Centre.” 

The seven-time MP from Baghpat and a prominent Jat leader had served as Union minister of civil aviation. He was the son of former Prime Minister of India late Chaudhary Charan Singh.

A B.Tech (Computer Science) from IIT Kharagpur and M.S. from Illinois Institute of Technology, he started off his career with a stint with IBM in the 1960s.

His first tryst with parliamentary politics was in 1986, when he was first elected to Rajya Sabha after his father became ill. He was elected to Lok Sabha from his stronghold Baghpat in 1989 and went on to represent the constituency six more times.

Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary was a member of Parliament from Mathura from 2009 to 2014.