Ajit Singh was re-elected in 1996 as a Congress candidate but resigned from the party and Lok Sabha. He then founded
Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party and was re-elected from
Baghpat in 1997 by-election. In 1999, he relaunched his party with the name Rashtriya Lok Dal. While Singh lost the 1998 election and was re-elected in 1999, 2004 and 2009. From 2001 to 2003, he was
Minister of Agriculture in
Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government. After his party joined the ruling
United Progressive Alliance in 2011, he was
Minister of Civil Aviation from December 2011 to May 2014. In
2019 Indian general election, he contested from
Muzaffarnagar but lost to
Sanjeev Balyan of BJP by a very small margin of 6526 votes. RLD could not make any strong presence from 2014 to 2022, even losing its traditional seats. On the other hand, the party was able to win nine of 33 seats in the
2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election which it contested in alliance with
Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh which gave boost to the party life. In
2024 Indian general election, the party joined the
Bharatiya Janata Party led
National Democratic Alliance and it won both the seats from which it contested in alliance (
Bijnor and
Baghpat). == RLD party office bearers ==