Rajnath Singh

A seasoned politician and RSS favourite

Home Minister

Date & year of birth: July 10, 1951
Consituency: Lucknow
Lok Sabha constituencies represented in the past: Ghaziabad (2009-2014)
Whether held ministerial charge earlier: Union surface transport minister (1999-2000); Union agriculture minister (2003-2004); chief minister of Uttar Pradesh (2000-2002). 

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Rajnath Singh is known to be one of the “most cunning” politicians, having swiftly worked his way up in the party. With an eye on the prime ministerial post, he placed his bets on former Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, whom he had expelled from the party’s parliamentary board (the highest decision-making body) during his first presidential stint from 2005 to 2009.  
 

Singh, according to party sources, tho­u­g­ht he would be the natural choice for the prime minister’s post should the BJP fail to get a majority on its own. Singh became the BJP president as a compromise candidate. Since the sparring factions within the BJP and its progenitor, the Rashtriya Swaya­m­sevak Sangh could not agree on any other name, after then party president Nitin Gadkari resigned following allegations of corruption, they had to settle on Singh.
 

Singh, 63, became a member of the RSS at 13 and was elected from the Mirz­a­pur Assembly seat in 1977. Singh, who used to teach Physics, became education minister in the UP government in 1991, state party president in 1997, and Union cabinet minister for surface transport in 1999. 
 

He was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2000 to 2002. Singh is a strong supporter of construction of a Ram temple at the disputed site. Of late, he seemed to have distanced himself from the old guard (L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi) of the BJP and emerged as a close confident of Modi. Though he doesn’t enjoy much ground support in his state, he continues to be a favourite of the RSS.