New role is a big responsibility, Lt Guv Manoj Sinha says

SRINAGAR — The newly appointed Jammu and Kashmir Union territory Lt Governor Manoj Sinha said that ‘new role is a big responsibility and he would be going to Kashmir today’.

The President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Sinha as the new Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir after accepting the resignation of Girish Chandra Murmu.

Murmu had taken oath as the first L-G Jammu & Kashmir on October 31, 2019. His resignation comes exactly a year after the Centre abrogated the special status of erstwhile State, and decided to bifurcate it into two Union Territories.

Manoj Sinha, as Jammu and Kashmir Lt Governor, said that the new role is a “big responsibility” and he “would be going to Kashmir today”.

Born on July 01, 1959, Manoj Sinha was Minister of Communications (independent charge) and Minister of State (MoS), Railways in the Government of India.

Sinha is a three-time Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of Parliament (MP) in the Lok Sabha, representing Ghazipur in the Lower House. He maintains a low-profile image, and is fondly called Vikas Purush by his followers. Sinha, has been actively involved in working for the backward villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

His political career began in 1982 when he was elected the president of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Students Union. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996 and repeated the term in 1999.

From 1989 to 1996, Sinha remained a member of the BJP national council. He was elected to the Lower House for a third term in national politics when the BJP swept the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

Political observers believe that appointment of a political leader as the Lt Governor indicates a great thrust in the days ahead to create conducive conditions to start the political process in Jammu and Kashmir.