Former Army Chief and Union minister, General VK Singh, has been given the charge as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.
Singh was earlier the Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs and briefly served as the MoS (Independent Charge) for Development of the North-Eastern Region, which was later taken over by Jitendra Singh.
Singh, who retained his Ghaziabad seat this time, defeated his closest rival, Suresh Bansal of the Samajwadi Party, with a margin of over 5 lakh votes.
Like in 2014, Singh’s campaign this time had focussed on his credentials as an Army general.
While repeatedly reiterating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s nationalist stance, Singh had taken up the suicide attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama in February as an issue during the campaign.
After retiring from the Army, Singh had initially lent support to the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal.
He joined the BJP on March 1, 2014, and won the Ghaziabad seat with a record margin of over 5.67 lakh votes — greater than the 3.36 lakh victory margin of Narendra Modi over AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal from Varanasi the same year.
In the Army, Singh had served as the 24th Chief of the Army Staff from 2010 to 2012.
He became the first serving chief of staff to take the government of India to court following a dispute over his date of birth and subsequent retirement.
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