Jayant Singh Chaudhary: The Jat leader from UP who is now a Union minister in Modi 3.0

The swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi and his council of ministers is underway. With this, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has formed the government at the Centre for a third straight term.

All eyes are on the division of ministerial berths among the NDA partners. While the BJP, which is the single largest party in the 18th Lok Sabha with 240 seats, will keep the bigger portion of the pie, its allies are set to be rewarded for helping it return to power for a third time.

One such ally is Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Singh Chaudhary. While he did not contest the Lok Sabha elections this time, the Rajya Sabha MP has been inducted into the Modi Cabinet 3.0.

Who is he? How did his party perform in the Lok Sabha polls? Let’s take a closer look.

Who is Jayant Chaudhary?

Born in the United States, Jayant Chaudhary comes from a political family in Uttar Pradesh. His grandfather, Chaudhary Charan Singh, was India’s fifth prime minister.

Jayant’s father, Ajit Singh, was a former Union minister and a popular face of Jat politics in the northern state.

Jayant Singh studied at Delhi University and completed a Master’s in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics.

As per an Indian Express report, he made his electoral debut in 2009 when he won from the Mathura Lok Sabha seat.

The RLD, which relied on a combination of the Jat community and Muslim voters in the sugarcane belt of the Hindi heartland state, faced huge setbacks in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls due to the riots in Muzaffarnagar, a West UP district, in 2013 during Akhilesh Yadav’s tenure as chief minister.

At the time, the RLD lost all eight Lok Sabha seats it contested, with Ajit Singh defeated from his home turf of Baghpat and his son losing from Mathura.

By the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Jayant Singh had taken control of the party from his father. For the general elections, the RLD forged an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP), Congress, and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

The RLD contested on only three Lok Sabha seats from Westen UP – Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat and Mathura. While it could not win any of these seats, Ajit and Jayant secured over 45 per cent of the vote share from their respective seats of Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat, the newspaper report added.

Although the RLD failed to make big gains in the 2022 UP Assembly polls, it saw a revival.

The RLD fought the 2022 Assembly polls in UP in an alliance with SP. PTI File Photo

In May 2021, Ajit Singh passed away from a prolonged illness. Jayant took charge as the RLD president that month. As Times of India (TOI) noted, the “biggest recognition” for Jayant came on 20 September 2021 when members of various Khaps gathered in Baghpat and “coronated” him as ‘Bade Chaudhary’ following his father’s death.

This title was held by Charan Singh and later Ajit Singh. The honour made Jayant the political representative of Khaps across India, TOI noted.

The RLD chief is the chairman of the Kisan Trust founded by his late grandfather in 1978. Jayant had supported the protesting farmers during their yearslong agitation in 2020-21 against the Centre’s three agriculture laws (now scrapped).

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Shift to NDA

Despite their poll losses and the BJP becoming a dominant force in UP since 2014, the RLD-SP alliance continued to grow. The bonhomie between SP’s Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary was visible on several occasions.

Until February this year, the RLD was a part of the Opposition INDIA bloc formed to take on the Modi-led NDA. Jayant had famously said in 2022 when the BJP reportedly approached the RLD for a tie-up ahead of UP Assembly polls, “Main koi chawanni nahi jo palat jaun (I am not a 25 paise coin who will flip).”

The RLD’s bet paid off as it increased its seat tally from one in 2017 to eight in the 2022 Assembly polls. It also improved its vote share from 1.8 per cent in 2017 to 2.9 per cent.

Jayant Singh’s crossover for greener pastures happened after one significant gesture this year.

In early February, the Modi government conferred Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian award, on the late Chaudhary Charan Singh, Jayant’s grandfather.

Responding to PM Modi’s announcement, the RLD chief wrote on X, “Dil jeet liya (You have won my heart)”.

When asked if he would switch to the BJP, he told reporters, “Dekhiye koi kasar rehti hai? Aaj mai kis muh se inkaar karoon aapke iss sawal ko?” (Is there anything left? With which face can I deny this question today?).

VIDEO | "The decision, which could not be taken by any other government, that was boldly taken by this government because of PM Modi's vision and his dedication," says RLD chief @jayantrld on Bharat Ratna to former PM Chaudhary Charan Singh. pic.twitter.com/RJbvBNOEng

Later, the RLD chief met the BJP’s Amit Shah and JP Nadda and joined the NDA, officially leaving the INDIA bloc.

As per the seat-sharing deal with the saffron party, the RLD contested two Lok Sabha seats – Bijnor and Baghpat. It bagged both seats in Uttar Pradesh this time.

And now, Jayant, who had become a Rajya Sabha MP with the SP’s support, will reportedly become a minister in the third Modi government .

United for the nation! #NDA pic.twitter.com/0enySlEA8T

Row over seating

The SP and Congress took potshots recently after Jayant Chaudhary was spotted sitting
on the benches of the Samvidhan Sadan (old Parliament) on Friday at the NDA parliamentary meeting.

This came as TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, JD(U) president Nitish Kumar, Shiv Sena’s Eknath Shinde, LJP (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, Jana Sena Party’s Pawan Kalyan, NCP’s Ajit Pawar, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, HAM’s Jitan Ram Majhi and Apna Dal (Sonelal)’s Anupriya Patel were sitting with Modi and other senior BJP leaders on the dais.

Taking a dig at the RLD chief, SP MP Rajeev Rai reportedly said, “Not giving him (Jayant Chaudhary) a seat on stage is an insult to the leader who is the grandson of the greatest leader of the farmers, Chaudhary sahib. BJP is the same party that calls farmers terrorists and traitors. If Jayant Chaudhary is concerned about the respect of the farmers and his own self-respect, he should not tolerate this insult”.

However, the RLD played down the incident. As per India Today, RLD MLA Anil Kumar said,
“When has (the) INDIA bloc given us respect? Whether one sits above or below is not a big deal. One should do politics with a broad mind. One should not think about small matters. The RLD is a main constituent party of the NDA and will remain with it”.

With the level of uncertainty in Indian politics, only time will tell if loyalties shift or remain same.

With inputs from agencies