New Delhi: Dr Jitendra Singh from Jammu & Kashmir has retained the position of a Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Development of North-eastern region and PMO in Narendra Modi’s new cabinet. Along with that he has also got the charge of three other ministries - Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space - as a Minister of State.
Singh, in the last five years, has served as the minister of state (independent charge) for Development of North Eastern Region, Prime Minister’s Office and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and has been heading the Department of Atomic Energy and Department of Space.
The Udhampur MP has been the chief spokesperson of BJP’s J&K unit.
In 2014 general elections, Singh had defeated Congress stalwart Ghulam Nabi Azad by a margin of about 6%. In the 2019 polls, he retained the Udhampur seat crossing his previous vote share.
His vote share jumped from 46.76% 2014 to 61.38% in 2019. Apart from handling the ministries, Singh has been giving due significance to his constituency as well. He has been posting about the developmental work via his official Twitter handle with the tag ‘#ConstituencyUpdate’.
Singh is a close confidante of PM Modi. Being elected from a sensitive state like Jammu and Kashmir, he was given the responsibility to look after another vulnerable region, the northeast of India. He has held the two responsibilities simultaneously.
The 62-year-old physician had remarked that the Kashmir issue is a ‘myth’ created by the Congress, National Conference and other such political groups. During a recent interview to News18 in the backdrop of the Ramzan ceasefire, he attributed militants’ indulgence in violence to foreign influence and not to government action. Singh, who has been vocal on Kashmir issue, has dismissed opposition’s demand of autonomy calling it ‘politically motivated’. In past, he shrugged off the UPA’s interaction with neighbouring Pakistan as ‘biryani diplomacy’.
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