New Delhi: Former MP Jayant Chaudhary was on Tuesday appointed as the new national president of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
The decision to elevate Jayant Chaudhary as party chief was taken at the National Executive of the party that met virtually today.
His elevation to the post comes following the demise of party president and his father Ajit Singh, who had succumbed to COVID-19 on May 6.
After his appointment as new RLD chief, Chaudhary expressed gratitude to party members and called on them to follow footsteps of party ideologues Chaudhary Charan Singh and Ajit Singh.
I am honoured & mindful of challenges ahead. Will try my best to strengthen our organisation & will value inputs as we collectively take our core issues forward. Am drafting an open letter to express my condolences & solidarity with all #Covid impacted families as a first step. https://t.co/aWXQd9Ls7I
— Jayant Chaudhary (@jayantrld) May 25, 2021
About Jayant Chaudhary
Jayant, as vice president, has already been managing party affairs since 2014 when his father Chaudhary Ajit Singh took a back seat after losing Baghpat Lok Sabha seat to the BJP.
Jayant, a postgraduate from the London School of Economics, will face the biggest challenge of not only taking forward the legacy of his grandfather – former Prime Minister and farmer leader Chaudhary Charan Singh – but also to regain west UP’s Jat vote bank which had decisively shifted towards the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections following 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.
Jayant lost his Mathura parliamentary seat to BJP’s Hema Malini in 2014 and then faced defeat in Baghpat in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Ajit Chaudhary died of Covid at 82
RLD President Chaudhary and former union minister Ajit Singh passed away on May 6 after contracting COVID-19. He was 82. He had tested positive for COVID-19.
Chaudhary Ajit Singh was the son of former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, was a seven-time member of Parliament from Bhagpat, UP. He also served as civil aviation minister of the country.
Ajit Singh was an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
