Profile

Rajnath Singh is the senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and has been the Defence Minister of India since 2019. Singh also served as the Union Home Minister in the Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. Rajnath Singh was the president of the BJP twice from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2014. He has been a Lok Sabha member from the Lucknow constituency of Uttar Pradesh for the last two terms. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Singh won the Lucknow seat by defeating Congress candidate Rita Bahuguna Joshi with a margin of 2,72,749 votes. In the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections, Singh retained the Lucknow constituency by defeating Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate Poonam Shatrughan Sinha with a margin of 3,47,302 votes. Rajnath Singh also represented the Ghaziabad parliamentary seat from 2009 to 2014. Singh was the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister from 2000 to 2002 and also won the Haidergarh Assembly constituency twice in 2001 (bypoll) and 2002. He was also a member of Rajya Sabha from 1994 to 2001 and again from 2002 to 2008. Singh also served as the Union Cabinet Minister for Agriculture (2003-2004) and Road Transport and Highways (1999-2000) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. Rajnath Singh is again contesting from the Lucknow constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024.