Manoj Sinha has been credited with overcoming the menace of call drop.

Manoj Sinha, a senior BJP leader and former Union Minister, has been appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir after Girish Chandra Murmu resigned yesterday.

Sinha is a three-time Lok Sabha MP who was Minister of State (Communication) in 2016 when the telecom industry was engaged in sale of spectrum. He has been credited with overcoming the menace of call drop.

Actively involved in developing the backward villages of Uttar Pradesh, Sinha has often been called ‘vikas purush’, news agency PTI reported.

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 again elected as the Lok Sabha MP from Ghazipur in the 2014 General Elections. He was former Minister of State for Railways and later held an independent charge of the Ministry of Communication.

A Rashtrapati Bhawan communique on Thursday said the resignation of Murmu has been accepted. The communique issued by the President’s press secretary Ajay Kumar said, “The President has been pleased to appoint Manoj Sinha, to be the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office” in place of Murmu.

The big change comes exactly a year after the Centre abrogated the special status of erstwhile state, and decided to bifurcate it into two Union Territories.

(With inputs from PTI)