Rajkumar Ranjan Singh joined the BJP in 2013
Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, who was sworn in as Union Minister of State today, belongs to an erstwhile royal clan of Manipur and has worked for unity among the various tribes in his state.
RK Ranjan, as he is popularly known, was born on September 1, 1952 in Manipur's Kongba Makha Nandeibam Leikai village. The academic-turned-politician is viewed as a unifier.
Son of Rajkumar Manisana Singh, he is married to Debala Devi. After graduating from Imphal's Dhana Manjuri College, he earned his master's degree in Geography in 1972 from Guwahati University and later a PhD on "problems of land-use" in Manipur.
After teaching in the colleges of Manipur, he joined Manipur University (MU) as an assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences. He was appointed the registrar at the University and served from 2004 to 2008.
In 2013, he joined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha elections in the very next year. However, his debut was unsuccessful.
In the 17th Lok Sabha elections held in 2019, he was elected as to the Lok Sabha from the Inner Manipur parliamentary constituency on BJP's ticket.
He has been appointed as a member of several parliamentary committees, including the Standing Committee for Science and Technology, the Consultative Committee for DoNER and the Parliamentary Rules Committee.