Chaudhary Ajit Singh, former Union minister and Rashtriya Lok Dal president, dies due to COVID-19

NEW DELHI: Rashtriya Lok Dal president Chaudhary Ajit Singh passed away on Thursday due to COVID-19. The shocking news of his death was confirmed by his son Jayant Chaudhary.

Several top political leaders, including PM Narendra Modi, expressed their condolences of RKLD chief's demise.

पूर्व केंद्रीय मंत्री चौधरी अजित सिंह जी के निधन से अत्यंत दुख हुआ है। वे हमेशा किसानों के हित में समर्पित रहे। उन्होंने केंद्र में कई विभागों की जिम्मेदारियों का कुशलतापूर्वक निर्वहन किया। शोक की इस घड़ी में मेरी संवेदनाएं उनके परिजनों और प्रशंसकों के साथ हैं। ओम शांति!

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) May 6, 2021

Chaudhary Ajit Singh had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 20 and was undergoing treatment at a Gurgaon hospital since then.

Ajit Singh's condition worsened and he passed away on Thursday, his son and former MP Jayant Chaudhary wrote on Twitter.

"Chaudhary Ajit Singh Ji was diagnosed as Covid positive on April 20. He battled his condition till the very end and breathed his last today morning," Jayant Chaudhary said.

चौधरी साहब नहीं रहे!
pic.twitter.com/7cnLkf0c6K

— Jayant Chaudhary (@jayantrld) May 6, 2021

A formidable farmers' leader 

The son of former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, Chaudhary Ajit Singh was a seven-time MP from Baghpat. He also served as the Union Minister of Civil Aviation.

Son of a formidable farmer leader Charan Singh, who helmed the country for six months in 1979-1980, Ajit Singh worked 15 years in the computer industry in the United States before he returned to the country to inherit the political fief of his father in the prosperous western Uttar Pradesh.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ajit Singh was first elected to Rajya Sabha in 1986.

The seven-time member of Lok Sabha, Ajit Singh, represented the family's pocket borough of Baghpat in the Lower House of Parliament. His party RLD wields influence in Jat-dominated western Uttar Pradesh.