Lieutenant Colonel Apji Dalel Singh was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India.
Education
Apji Dalel Singh completed his schooling from Herbert School at Kotah and then went on to Banaras Hindu University, one of the most prestigious Universities in India of that time and even of today. He studied Political Science and earned his Master of Arts in the same subject in 1932.
Career
He hails from Thikana "Palaitha", a premier principality of the erstwhile Kotah State in Rajasthan. He represented Kotah state in the Constituent Assembly of India from 1946 to 1950. An ardent cricketer, he played on the University Cricket team as 1 of the 2 opening batsmen.
Story goes that during his Master"s degree, he played on behalf of the university staff against the students" team where the staff made 121 runs and lost.
After his University studies, he travelled to London to study for the Indian Civil Service Examination In 1945, the Maharao of Kotah, HH Bhim Singh II asked him to return to Kotah and represent the state at New Delhi in the Constituent Assembly of India.
His work brought him in close proximity to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pint Heera Lal Shastri and Sir V. T. Krishnamachari amongst others
Representing the States in the Assembly he often spoke on behalf of and for the rights of the States.
Therefore at times he was at opposing end of the views of Pint Jawaharlal Nehru and the Indian National Congress. Some of these incidences disillusioned him with Indian Politics.
After the end of term of the Constituent Assembly of India in January 1950, Pint
Heera Lal Shastri invited him to join his ministry in Jaipur after he became the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. But having been disillusioned with politics, he politely declined and decided to work for the state of Kotah, which he did even after the merger of the States in the Republic in 1952.
During the last two years of his life, Apji Dalel Singh suffered from ill health. On 8 March 1984, he suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep.
He was cremated at Kotah.
Membership
During the late 1940s he was a member of the Constituent Assembly of India and got the opportunity to live in Delhi and see firsthand the process of Indian Independence.