Record 5,000 days in office

Among several records that Dr Raman Singh holds, this one stands out -- this August 14, two months before his 65th birthday, the Chhattisgarh chief minister completed 5,000 days in office without a break.

He is the only Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to be CM for so long (Narendra Modi had an uninterrupted 4,610 days as Gujarat chief minister before moving to the Prime Minister’s office in May 2014).

Singh is also the only BJP chief minister other than Modi to have won three assembly elections on the trot. His domination of Chhattisgarh in parliamentary elections, too, has remained unchallenged.

Born in a peasant family in Kawardha on October 15, 1952, Singh’s degree in Ayurveda came by chance. He cleared the pre-medical test but was denied admission for MBBS because he was too young. Singh then studied Ayurveda at Raipur and got a BAMS degree at the age of 23.

Singh was noticed by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the leadership of the BJP for treating the underprivileged in his native town over the next two years.

He made his political debut in 1990, when he was elected to the Madhya Pradesh assembly. He was re-elected three years later and became Union minister of state in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Caught up with politics and governance for 14 years, Singh says he misses playing volleyball and cricket.