Gonda MP Kirti Vardhan Singh sworn in as Minister of State

A five-term Lok Sabha MP from Gonda, Kirti Vardhan Singh secured hat-trick victory in the general elections, defeating Shreya Verma of the Samajwadi Party.

Published on: Jun 9, 2024, 22:05:36 IST

By HT News Desk

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Popularly known as Raja Bhaiya among his supporters, Kirti Vardhan Singh, the Lok Sabha MP from Gonda, was sworn in as the Minister of State in the Modi 3.0 Cabinet on Sunday. The 58-year-old hails from the royal family of Mankapur and has carried forward the legacy of his father, Anand Singh, who was a Congress MP and MLA from Gonda.

A five-time Lok Sabha MP from Gonda, Singh recently secured a hat-trick victory in the general elections, defeating his nearest rival, Shreya Verma of the Samajwadi Party, by over 46,000 votes. He won the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket and was previously elected to Parliament in 1998 and 2004 on a Samajwadi Party ticket.

Read: Narendra Modi Cabinet 3.0: Full list of Union ministers

In April 2023, Singh made headlines when renowned skydiver Sheetal Mahajan jumped from a glider flown by him at Pinjore Airport in Haryana during the National Aero Modelling Fellowship Programme. Singh holds a master's degree in Geology from Lucknow University and is an agriculturist by profession. He is married to Madhushree Singh, and they have one son.

According to the Lok Sabha website, protection of the environment has always been an important issue for Singh. He had organised village level groups to protect the flora and fauna of the local forest from timber mafia and poachers.

Read more: TDP’s Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu takes oath as Cabinet minister, one of the youngest in Modi 3.0

Currently, he is working on a project to rejuvenate local lakes. Singh successfully fought for the cause of settlement of the Vantangiya labour families living in the forests. He also spearheaded the fight against the local sand mafia at the ground level as well as in the National Green Tribunal, which ultimately resulted in heavy fines imposed on the offenders and the curbing of this ecologically harmful activity.

His father Anand Singh was elected as Congress MP from Gonda in 1971, 1980, 1984 and 1989.

Anand Singh was also a member of the UP Legislative Assembly and served as Agriculture Minister in the Akhilesh Yadav-led SP government in UP from 2012 to 2017. He retired from active politics in 2017.

(With inputs from PTI)

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