Rao Inderjit gets third term as minister in Team Modi
Sumedha Sharma
Gurugram, June 9
Rao Inderjit Singh, who has become the first Haryana politician to reach Parliament for the sixth time, has made it to the Modi Council of Ministers for third consecutive term.
Rao, a veteran Ahir leader who switched to the BJP in 2014, has managed to win Lok Sabha elections consecutively for five terms. He had made a record by securing the highest number of votes in the state in the 2019 elections. In a brief conversation with The Tribune, Rao said that he considered this induction as yet another chance to serve the people of Haryana.
Good performance
- Rao Inderjit Singh is the first Haryana politician to reach Parliament for the sixth time
- He has managed to win Lok Sabha elections consecutively for five terms
- He had made a record by securing the highest number of votes in the state in the 2019 elections
- Prior to this, he served the Modi government for last two terms as Union Minister of State
“My representation in the Cabinet is the people’s representation. We got major projects in the past 10 years, but these five years will break all records,” said Rao.
Prior to this, he served the Modi government for last two terms as Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Planning, Statistics and Programme Implementation and Planning, and Union Minister of State, Ministry of Defence.
The veteran Ahir leader Rao Inderjit started his political career in 1977 from Jatusana Assembly (now Kosli). In Jatusana, which was the traditional seat of his father Rao Birender Singh, he was fielded as the political heir of his family and has since managed to maintain a stronghold in Ahirwal.
Rao remained a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly four times from 1977 to 1982, 1982 to 1987 and 1991 to 1996 and again from 2000 to 2004. From 1986 to 1987, he was given the responsibility of Minister of State (Independent Charge), Planning Food and Civil Supplies, in the Haryana Government. From 1991 to 1996, he was a Cabinet Minister in the state government.
He also handled important departments like Environment and Forest and Medical and Technical Education. His father Rao Birender Singh made him the Lok Sabha candidate in his stead in 1998 for the Mahendragarh Lok Sabha seat. Rao Inderjit entered Parliament and became a member of the 12th Lok Sabha.
The stint was short-lived as he faced his first defeat in the very next election in 1999 but came back in 2004 and has never looked back. From 1998 to 1999, Rao was also a member of the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests. In 2004, he was again elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from Mahendragarh seat.
