What you should know about the newly appointed Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir,Manoj Sinha

Former union minister and senior BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, Manoj Sinha, was on Thursday appointed as Lt Governor of Jammu and Kashmir after Girish Chandra Murmu resigned yesterday.

The 61-year-old Sinha was born on July 1, 1959, in Mohanpura of Ghazipur district of eastern UP and has been actively involved in working for the backward villages of eastern Uttar Pradesh.

His political career began when he was elected as the president of Banaras Hindu University Students Union in 1982. He was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1996 and repeated the term in 1999. Sinha has been a member of the BJP national council from 1989 to 1996. He was elected to the Lower House for a third term in national politics when the BJP swept the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

Prior to joining active politics, he was a member of the General Council, School of Planning during 1999–2000. He has also been a member of the committee on Energy and a member of the committee on Government Assurances.

He was inducted as a member of the BJP National Council in 1989. He was elected for successive terms in 1996 & 1999 and again in 2014 to the Lok Sabha from Ghazipur Constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He was made the Minister of State for the Railways Ministry in the first set of ministers inducted into the Narendra Modi government in May 2014. In July 2016, during the second cabinet reshuffle, he was also made Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Communications Ministry.

An agriculturalist at heart and a silent performer who consciously maintains a low profile, Sinha has been among the best performing members of Parliament in the 13th Lok Sabha in 1999.

Recently, he was counted among the seven most honest MPs by a leading magazine. Sinha, a civil engineer, and an IIT-BHU alumnus has set a rare example by utilizing his entire MPLAD Fund for the welfare of the people of his constituency.

He is both recognized for a strong ability to connect with masses, especially at the rural level along with being a firm administrator.