Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh (born July 10 1951 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India) is the current leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party in India. He was previously president of the BJP youth wing and the BJP's unit in his home state of Uttar Pradesh. He was initially a physics lecturer, but soon used his long-term connections with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to get involved with the Janata Party, which led him to numerous positions within Uttar Pradesh.

Early life

Rajnath Singh was born in the small village of Bhabhora in the Varanasi district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. His father was Ram Badan Singh and his mother was Gujarati Devi.cite news|title=Rajnath Singh: Profile|publisher=Zee News|url=http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?rep=2&aid=264537&sid=ARC] 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, given the bright red birthmark on his forehead, he was appointed secretary for the Mirzapur unit of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, also a Hindutva based political party.

Early political career

In 1975, aged 24, Rajnath Singh was appointed District President of the Jan 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 Uttar Pradesh. Major highlights of his tenure as education minister included removing distorted history from textbooks and incorporating vedic mathematics into the syllabus. In April 1994, he was elected into the Rajya Sabha 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 Behari 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. [cite news|url=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2003/06/11/stories/2003061100100800.htm|title=Courage, Mr Rajnath Singh|publisher=The Hindu]

On December 24, 2005, following the resignation of Lal Krishna Advani, the BJP and RSS elected him to be the Party's President. He was reelected in November 2006 with no challenges to his candidacy, and 15 nominations from the committee. [http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14338165 Rajnath Singh re-elected as BJP chief] Sify - November 26, 2006]

BJP President

Rajnath Singh has entered the BJP while it is in a crisis of sorts, after Atal Behari Vajpayee lost power in the previous elections. After the resignation of prominent figure Lal Krishna Advani, and the murder of strategist Pramod Mahajan he seeks to rebuild the party by focusing on the most basic Hindutva ideologies.cite news|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Its_basic_instinct_for_Rajnath_Singh/articleshow/911268.cms|title=It's basic instinct for Rajnath Singh|publisher=The Times of India] 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, pointing towards all the developments the National Democratic Alliance made for the ordinary people of India, while he lashes out at the Congress and Marxist parties for minority appeasement and increasing inflation.

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 Uttarakhand and Punjab, as well as municipal elections in Delhi, Chandigarh and across Maharashtra. His biggest task has been to prepare for the 2007 Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the party has the highest expectations of him. Rajnath, whose preference to not align with Mayawati was ignored by the BJP's top leadership last time, will have the ultimate say in what happens following the election. However, in election campaigns he talks about development.

Some in the media have speculated that Rajnath may view a successful tenure as party president as a means to stake claim to be the party's Prime Ministerial candidate in 2009. Rajnath, however, has preferred to keep under wraps any of his ambition.

References

ee also

*Hindu nationalist parties

[pl:Rajnath Singh]