Considered to be number two in the Modi governments in 2014 and 2019, 73-year-old Rajnath Singh hails from Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. Singh, who started his career as an RSS worker, was the president of the UP BJP and later on the national president of the BJP twice. Singh was also associated with the ABVP.
He was jailed during the Emergency in 1975 for two years. A close confidante of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Singh was also the chief minister of UP from 2000 to 2002.
He holds a master’s degree in science and had earlier worked as a lecturer of Physics at a college in Mirzapur.
Published 10 June 2024, 00:27 IST