Rajnath Singh is a famous Indian politician belonging to the Bhartiya Janata Party and is the current Defence Minister of India. Singh was born on July 10, 1951. He has also served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Cabinet Minister in the Vajpayee Government. He has been the Home Minister in the First Modi Ministry.
He has also served as the President of the BJP twice, 2005 to 2009 and 2013 to 2014. He began his career as a physics lecturer and used his long-term association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to become involved with the Janata Party.
Singh also has held other positions like President of the Party's (BJP) Youth Wing and President of the BJP's unit in Uttar Pradesh. Born to Rambandan Singh and Gujarati Devi, Singh is married to Savitri Singh and they have two sons and a daughter. Singh obtained a Masters' Degree in Physics with first division from Gorakhpur University, Uttar Pradesh, and was appointed as a lecturer in the KB Post Degree College in Mirzapur in 1971.
He has been associated with the RSS since the age of 13. In 1969, Singh began his political career as the organizing secretary of the BJP's student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and later became the secretary of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh's Mirzapur Unit in 1974. In 1975, he was elected as the District President of the Jan Sangh, the predecessor of BJP. Singh was also a part of the Jaiprakash Narayan's movement during the emergency and was arrested in 1975.
He has held important positions in the party. In 1991, he became the Education minister of UP in the first-ever BJP government of the state. Singh's tenure was praised and he came into the news for the introduction of the famous Anti-Copying Act and Vedic Mathematics in the syllabus. There were also corrections made in various portions of history textbooks.
He became the member of Rajya Sabha in 1994 and also became the Chief Whip of BJP in Rajya Sabha. In 1997, he became the President of the UP unit of BJP and in 1999, he became the Union Cabinet Minister for Surface Transport. He was elected as an MLA from Haidergarh and became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in the year 2000. In 2003, Singh was appointed as the Minister of Agriculture and subsequently for Food Processing in the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
During this period, he initiated projects like Kisan Call Centre and also established Farmer Commission and initiated Farm Income Insurance Scheme. Singh was elected as BJP's National President in 2005 and again in 2013 after the resignation of Nitin Gadkari. In 2014, Singh contested elections from the Lucknow constituency and was elected as a Member of Parliament. Singh served as the Home Minister in the 2014 Modi government. He won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow and was allocated the Defence portfolio which he continues to hold.
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