Keeping up with UP | In the footsteps of Charan Singh’s political journey
Hindustan TimesCharan Singh was cabinet minister in the Sampurnanand government in Uttar Pradesh when at the 64th session of the All-India Congress Committee in Nagpur, he vehemently criticised the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru's proposal on collective farming, which, it was believed, was inspired by Russia. However, what his son, Chaudhury Ajit Singh could not manage despite being in the Union cabinet of various political parties four times, his look-alike grandson Jayant Singh and Rashtriya Lok Dal chief, did in one go. Singh replaced Gupta a year later — a result of a split in the Congress in 1969 and the support from one of the factions that supported Indira Gandhi. He was grooming Mulayam Singh Yadav as his successor, when Singh’s son, Chaudhary Ajit Singh, quit his job in the United States and returned home to stake a claim on his father's party. Charan Singh rechristened his party as Bhartiya Lok Dal in the 1980s and Ajit Singh reconstructed it as the Rashtriya Lok Dal — what it’s still called today, and is run by Ajit Singh’s son, Jayant — in 1996.
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