Dr Jitendra Singh, 62, the Bharatiya Janata Party winner from Udhampur-Doda, defeated Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress by a margin of over 350,000 votes.
A diabetologist, who earned his doctor’s degree from Stanley Medical College in Chennai, Singh was the chief spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir Bharatiya Janata Party before being elected to the 16th Lok Sabha.
In the previous government, Singh was a minister of state for the Prime Minister’s Office. This time around too, he has been sworn in as minister of state with an independent charge.
He shot to light in 2008, over the land row agitation that lasted 61 days, at a time when the atmosphere became extremely polarized. During the turmoil, Singh, a good orator, emerged as a prominent voice of Jammu.
An author of eight books and a newspaper columnist, he often blames National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party leaders for the political situation of the state.
After the suicide attack in Pulwama, in which 44 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) were killed, a war of words between National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and Singh erupted.
Singh called politicians from Kashmir “apologists” and Abdullah reacted saying no one should play politics over dead and injured soldiers. The war of words continued over social media platform, Twitter.
{{/usCountry}}Singh called politicians from Kashmir “apologists” and Abdullah reacted saying no one should play politics over dead and injured soldiers. The war of words continued over social media platform, Twitter.
{{/usCountry}}However, Singh’s younger brother Devender Singh Rana is a close confidant of National Conference leader Dr Farooq Abdullah, who won from Srinagar in the recent general elections, as well as his son Omar Abdullah.
Earlier, he had also said “studios” have been set up in Pakistan to promote propaganda but the Centre is taking effective steps to counter them.