since 2005. Digvijay Singh was narrowly defeated by a margin of 2800 votes in the 2004 General Elections. However, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha for the second time in his career in 2004. In April 2009, Digvijay Singh voluntarily resigned from the Rajya Sabha before going on to contest successfully as an independent candidate for the Banka Lok Sabha seat in the 2009 General Elections. After his death in 2010, his wife Putul Kumari won the bye-poll. Union Minister in Central Government and Member of Several Committees In 1990, when the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government at the Center fell later that year and Chandrashekhar formed a government with the outside support of the Indian National Congress, Digvijay Singh was made a Union Deputy Minister, Ministry of Finance and Union Deputy Minister, Ministry of External Affairs. In 1998, Digvijay Singh became the Union Minister of State, Ministry of Railways in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government from 13 October 1999 – 22 July 2001, Union Minister of State, Ministry of Commerce and Industry from 22 July 2001 – 1 September 2001, again Union Minister of State, Ministry of Railways from 1 September 2001 – 30 June 2002. From 1 July 2002 – 12 May 2004, he was Union Minister of State, Ministry of External Affairs. He was Leader of Indian delegations to U.N. on different occasions, the Government of India's special emissary to meet leaders like Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, Pervez Musharraf, etc.; was deputed by the Government of India as Minister-in-Waiting with President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan during his stay in India for 'Agra Summit'; visited Japan as a student and later as member of Indian Parliamentary Delegation; attended, 88th I.P.U. Conference, Stockholm, Sweden, 1992. He was also Member of numbers of committees like Committee on Rules Member, Committee on Defence Member, Joint Committee on Offices of Profit 1998-99,Committee on Defence and its Sub Committee-II Member, Committee on Provision of Computers to Members of Parliament and its Sub-Committee on Maintenance of Computers and related activities Member, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of External Affairs Member, Court of Jawaharlal Nehru University 1999 - Feb. 2004,House Committee Member, Committee on Health and Family Welfare Aug. 2006 onwards Member, All India Council for Technical Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development. Later Political career After winning the 2009 General elections, Digvijay Singh set out to create a political platform, called Lok