R K Ranjan: Manipur's erstwhile royal, academic, politician and now Union MoS

Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, who was sworn in as Union minister of state on Wednesday, is a member of an erstwhile royal clan in Manipur and has worked for unity among various tribes in his state.

R K Ranjan, as he is popularly known, was born on September 1, 1952 in the village of Kongba Makha Nandeibam Leikai in Manipur’s Imphal East district. The former academic and now politician is seen as a unifier.

Son of the late Rajkumar Manisana Singh, he is married to Debala Devi. After graduating from Dhana Manjuri College Imphal, he did his master’s in Geography in 1972 from Guwahati University and later a PhD on ‘problems of land-use’ in Manipur.

R K Ranjan hails from the Manipur royal clan which is still highly regarded in the state.

After teaching in colleges in Manipur, he joined Manipur University (MU) as an assistant professor in the department of Earth Sciences. He was appointed registrar at MU and served from 2004 to 2008.

In 2013, he joined the BJP and contested the Lok Sabha elections in the next very year. However, his debut was marked by defeat.

In 17th Lok Sabha elections held in 2019, he was elected as Member of Parliament in the Lok Sabha from inner Manipur parliamentary constituency on the BJP ticket.

He has been appointed member of several parliamentary committees, including the Standing Committee for Science and Technology, the Consultative Committee for DoNER and the Parliamentary Rules Committee.