Chaudhary Ajit Singh, a computer scientist who collaborated with IBM in the 1960s, established the Rashtriya Lok Dal in 1997. He served six terms as a Lok Sabha member for the Baghpat constituency and he held the post of Cabinet Minister 4 times in his political career. Throughout his life, he fought for farmers and agricultural reforms. He was affectionately known as ‘Chhote Choudhary Saheb.’

He led his own faction of Lok Dal (Ajit) in 1987. He was President of Janata Party in 1988 and was elected as Secretary-General in 1989 of the Janata Dal, and a Member of Parliament in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections.

In December 1989, Ch. Ajit Singh became the Union Cabinet Minister for Industry in the National Front Government of Late Shri VP Singh (from December, 1989 to November, 1990). He was re-elected in 1991 as Member of Parliament from Janata Dal. He was appointed Cabinet Minister of Food in February, 1995 in the Congress Government and held the post till May, 1996.

Ch. Ajit Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha again in 1996 and left the congress party to form his own Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party (BKKP). He resigned his membership as MP from Lok Sabha and contested the bye-election caused by his resignation as a BKKP candidate. In 1999, he contested Lok Sabha polls as a candidate of the Rashtriya Lokdal. In July 2001, he was sworn in as Cabinet Minister for Agriculture and served in the position till May 2003.

Ch. Ajit Singh is a prominent advocate for a ‘rural development focussed’ model of growth. He has pushed for increased investment in the rural economy and introduction of measures to propagate sustainable technologies for improving agricultural productivity, and economic yields for farmers. Notably, in 1996, he reduced the circle distance between sugar mills from 25 km to 15 km, which resulted in greater investments and competition in the sugar industry and higher realizations for farmers. As Agriculture Minister, he also instituted the credit linked subsidy scheme for augmenting cold storage capacity, which enabled much needed flow of private investment into the industry.

As Agriculture Minister Ch Ajit Singh was prompt in providing relief to the farmers facing the crisis of the 2002 drought. He extended assistance from the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) which was till then restricted to farmers holding two hectares of land or less, to all farmers (this was critical for the farming community particularly in areas where the average landholding was high but productivity was low). He has spearheaded the public movement against the antiquated and inequitable land acquisition laws in the country, and also the successful agitation by the sugarcane farmers in Delhi against the FRP Amendment (2009) to the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. He is a votary of the movement for reorganizing of some of India’s large and administratively unwieldy states including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

Ch. Ajit Singh served as Chairman of the Kisan Trust founded by former Prime Minister, late Chaudhary Charan Singh in 1978.

Chaudhary Jayant Singh ji is the national president of Rashtriya Lok Dal and Rajya Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh. He was elected as MP from Mathura in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Jayant Chaudhary always raises issues which concern common people and the nation in the Parliament.

Born on 27th December 1978, Jayant did his undergraduate studies from Shri Venkateswara College, Delhi University, and in 2002 completed an MSc in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Jayant has been a vocal critic of the 1894 land acquisition law and the large-scale acquisition of fertile lands in the State of Uttar Pradesh. He was at the forefront of a number of agitations to protest the unfair acquisition of land in the State and in particular, the agitations in the Noida, Greater Noida, Mathura, Hathras, Agra and Aligarh districts.

The agitations and the violence against protestors at Bhatta Parsaul, Bajna and Tappal recently led to a nationwide debate on the misuse of the provisions of the Acquisition Act, and the indiscriminate use of force on protesters.

On 26th August 2010, thousands of farmers came to protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi where Jayant Chaudhary forcefully called for the Central Government to intervene and move to pass a new Land Acquisition law in parliament.

On 5th August, 2011, Jayant introduced a Private Member’s Bill on Land Acquisition in the Lok Sabha. The main tenets of the Bill included measures for limiting the government’s acquisition for private profit and the use of urgency clause in acquiring land. The proposal calls for return of land to landowners in case the land is not utilized in the stated land use within a period of five years, including intended land use as a parameter in calculating market value as compensation for landowners, a time-bound procedure for the acquisition process, compensation and dispute resolution, and a Land Acquisition Compensation Disputes Settlement Authority to adjudicate in disputes.

Jayant is concerned with the impact of climate change on our country, its agriculture and environment. He has spoken out in parliament on the need for countries like India, which have developing and large agrarian economies to come together and adopt a flexible approach that does not create barriers for growth but at the same time addresses the need for a global understanding and commitment on the climate change issue. Jayant is a vocal proponent of renewable energy. He attended a conference by the climate parliament organization in the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2011, and has called for the Government to set a target for India to achieve a 15 % share of solar, wind, biomass and other renewable energy technologies in total electricity supply by 2020.

Jayant also introduced a Private Member’s bill to amend the Right To Information Act to increase the applicability of the act to include PPPs (Public Private Partnerships) to ensure greater transparency.

During his first term in the Lok Sabha, Jayant Chaudhary served as a member of several Parliamentary Committees; the Standing Committees on Commerce, Agriculture and Finance, the Consultative Committee on Finance, the Committee on Ethics, and the Committee on Government Assurances. He was a member of the General Board of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).

Jayant Chaudhary was the Co-chair of the FICCI Indo-British Forum of Parliamentarians and member of the Indo-Venezuela Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Jayant Chaudhary has been working with several civil society groups, and non-governmental organizations. He served as convener of the ‘Thursday Briefing sessions’ organized by the Constitution Club of India (CCI) in partnership with the PRS Legislative Research for the honorable Members of the Parliament during the session. This forum is a bi-partisan effort to informally debate on important legislations and evolve consensus on issues. He is a key member of the Climate Parliament and Globe India organizations, which work on sensitizing policy makers to climate change and the imperatives to ensure energy security in developing countries.

Jayant Chaudhary is serving as Chairman of the Kisan Trust founded by former Prime Minister, late Chaudhary Charan Singh in 1978.