Ajit Prasad Jain

Who is Ajit Prasad Jain?

Ajit Prasad Jain was a former President of the U. P. Congress Committee, member of the Constituent Assembly, Union minister and Governor of Kerala from Saharanpur, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.

He was an alumnus of the SM College, Chandausi and was elected to the Constituent Assembly from the United Provinces.

He was a minister with cabinet rank in charge of the Ministry of Rehabilitation under Nehru following the constitution of the First Lok Sabha in 1952. When Rafi Ahmed Kidwai formed the All India Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party owing to ideological differences with the then Congress president Purushottam Das Tandon, Jain handed in his resignation to Nehru in solidarity with Kidwai. Nehru however turned it down.

In 1957 he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Saharanpur and was appointed Cabinet Minister for Food and Agriculture. In 1962 he lost from Kairana to Yashpal Singh, an independent candidate but was fielded by the Congress Party from Tumkur from where he won.

He succeeded V V Giri as the third governor of Kerala serving from April 2, 1965 to February 6, 1966 during which time the state remained under President's rule.

He chaired the Uttar Pradesh Police Commission, looking into police reforms in the state, from 1960 and it submitted its report in 1961. His Shadow of the bear: The Indo-Soviet treaty was published in 1971 and Kashmir: what really happened, based on his recollection of events that led to the arrest of Sheikh Abdullah in 1953, in 1972.