Rajnath Singh

Rajnath Singh was born in July 1951 in Bhabhuara village in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district. He came from a farming family and completed a master’s degree in physics at Gorakhpur University. Before his full-time political career, he taught physics at K.B. Post-Graduate College in Mirzapur. He is married to Savitri Singh; the government biography records two sons. His early political activity included work with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

Singh entered politics in the 1970s and was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1977. He was detained during the Emergency. His later state assignments included membership of the Legislative Council and service as Education Minister in 1991–1992. He became president of the Uttar Pradesh BJP in 1997 and Chief Minister in 2000, serving in that office until 2002 before returning to national ministerial work.

Singh served as Union Surface Transport Minister in 1999–2000 and Agriculture Minister in 2003. He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 after earlier membership of the Rajya Sabha. In 2014 he became Home Minister in Narendra Modi’s government and moved to the Defence Ministry in 2019. He won Lucknow for a third consecutive term in 2024 and again took the oath as a Union cabinet minister.

The Prime Minister’s Office’s current allocation of portfolios lists Singh as Minister of Defence. His work in the ministry has included policies intended to increase domestic production of military equipment. His official biography records restrictions announced on imports of specified defence items in 2020 and 2021. It also describes initiatives concerning women’s participation in the armed forces. These policy responsibilities followed his earlier work in home affairs, agriculture and transport.