Chaudhary Prem Singh has been a popular leader of Delhi Congress as well as the entire country. He contested his first election from Ambedkar Nagar in 1958 and created a Guinness World Record for winning 11 consecutive elections from the same party and the same constituency. He served as the Speaker of the Delhi Assembly twice. He also held many ministries. He served as the President of the All India Congress Committee. He was also the President of Delhi Congress three times. Prem Singh was elected to MCD in 1958 and 1962. He was then elected to the Delhi Metropolitan Council four times during 1972–1983. He was elected to the Delhi Assembly for four consecutive terms during 1993–2008.
early life
Prem Singh was born on 20 December 1932 in Lado Sarai, Delhi. His father, Chaudhary Himmat Singh, was a Congress Party activist and participant in the Indian independence movement. Prem Singh graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from Delhi College (now Zakir Hussain Delhi College) in 1952.
Personal life
Prem Singh lived with his wife Shivkauri in Lado Sarai area of Mehrauli. His elder son Pramod Chaudhary (born 1971) was also elected to MCD in 2007. The second son, Yaduraj Chaudhary, entered politics as a member of the Delhi Youth Congress. Now his eldest grandson Dev Chaudhary has also followed him and entered the political arena at the young age of just 21, he has supported the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because of its ideology.
political journey
Prem Singh joined the Indian National Congress in 1952 at the insistence of his mentor C. Krishnan Nair (CK Nair), a senior Congress MP and best known as an early nominee to become the first Chief Minister of Delhi. In 1958 he became the youngest member of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the first chairman of its Committee on Delhi Rural Areas. He was re-elected to MCD in 1962. He served on the education and working committees of the MCD and also served as the vice-chairman of the regional committee.
In 1967, Prem Singh was elected to the newly formed Metropolitan Council of Delhi. He was re-elected to the Metropolitan Council in 1972, 1977 and 1983. He served as a member of the Executive Council during the fourth Metropolitan Council (1983–1990). Also in 1967, he was elected as a member of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC), the decision-making body of the Congress in Delhi.
In 1969 he became a member of the All India Congress Committee, the party’s central decision-making body. He won consecutive DPCC elections in 1972, 1977 and 1983. He served as General Secretary of the DPCC during 1969–1975, and as its President in 1977 and during 1988–1992. He was elected to the first Legislative Assembly of Delhi in 1993 and won the next three elections in 1998, 2003 and 2008. He also served as the second (1998–2003) and third (2004–2008) president. In 2013, he lost the election to Aam Aadmi Party’s Ashok Kumar and finished third.
Death
On 6 December 2017, B.R. Prem Singh suffered a heart attack while attending a party program on the death anniversary of Ambedkar. He was admitted to the Heart and Lung Institute, but was shifted to Max Hospital (Saket) on 9 December 2017. And he died on 12 December 2017 after suffering 4 more heart attacks.
