JAMMU : Son of a security aide of erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, it has been a long wait for Nirmal Kumar Singh of BJP to come to the centre stage of State politics.
After having a heart-burn during the ticket distribution in last Lok Sabha election, Singh was the unanimous choice of the BJP for the post of Deputy Chief Minister.
Singh contested several Lok Sabha and State assembly elections over the past 25 years but had to wait till 2014 for his maiden victory.
58-year-old Singh won the assembly election held last year from Billawar constituency in Kathua district by defeating sitting Congress MLA Manohar Lal Sharma by a margin of nearly 18,000 votes.
Singh, whose father was in the close security cordon of the then Maharaja of the State, was beaming as he walked to take the oath as a minister in the Mufti Mohammed Sayeed Government today.
He is among the first BJP MLAs to be sworn-in as a minister in the country’s only Muslim-majority State.
A professor of history at Jammu University, Singh hails from Karanwara-Sabar area of Basohli tehsil in Kathua. (AGENCIES)
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