Gurugram: Rao Inderjit Singh, who secured his sixth consecutive win from the Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat by defeating Congress candidate Raj Babbar, has become the first Haryana politician to reach Parliament for the sixth time.
Singh also holds the record of getting the highest vote share of 60.34 per cent in the Gurgaon Lok Sabha constituency. He also created the record for getting the highest number of votes in the 2019 elections.
The veteran Ahir leader started his political career in 1977 at 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.
The people here gave Rao Inderjit a strong entry into politics. After reaching Chandigarh in 1977, Singh never looked back and from here he reached Chandigarh as a member of the Haryana Legislative Assembly four consecutive times from 1977 to 1982, 1982 to 1987 and 1987 to 1991 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 Supply 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 reached the threshold of Parliament by winning the very first election and became a member of the 12th Lok Sabha.
Although he faced defeat in the very next election i.e. in the 1999 polls, he avenged it in 2004.
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.
In May 2004, he was made the Union Minister of State for External Affairs. He continued to perform this responsibility till 2006. From February 2006 to 2009, Rao was the Union Minister of State for Defence Production.
In the delimitation held in 2008, Gurgaon was again brought into existence as a Lok Sabha constituency. After the 1971 election, it was merged with Mahendragarh and its major part Faridabad was made a separate Lok Sabha constituency. After the delimitation, the election for the 15th Lok Sabha was held in 2009 and despite the change in the constituency, Rao won on Congress ticket.
This was his third term as a Member of Parliament. On 31 August 2009, he was made the Chairman of the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Information Technology.
In May 2014, he contested the 16th Lok Sabha elections from Gurgaon on BJP ticket and won his second consecutive election from this constituency and third as an MP.
From 27 May 2014 to 9 November 2014, he was made Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Planning, Statistics and Program Implementation and Planning.
In May 2019, he entered Parliament as an elected member of the 17th Lok Sabha, scoring a hat-trick of victory from the Gurgaon seat. This was his fifth term as an MP. From June 2019 till the dissolution of Parliament, he remained Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Planning, Statistics and Program Implementation.
(IANS)
