Nirmal Kumar Singh

Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh is an Indian politician and was the last Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State.

He is a former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

He is a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Dr Singh authored a book titled 'Inter Communal Relations in Jammu and Kashmir from 1846-1931', a deep insight into the crucial phase of history of Jammu and Kashmir.

He has guided at least four PhD and five M Phil scholars.

Singh started taking an active interest in political activities at a young age.

Dr Nirmal Singh was born on 22 January 1956 to a humble family in Karanwara Basohli, Jammu and Kashmir.

He did his primary education in his native place.

He is the youngest of his two brothers.

His father was a security aide of the erstwhile Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir (princely state).

He was arrested during the Emergency period in 1975.

After serving the ABVP as a pracharak in different parts of the country, Dr Singh returned to Jammu and joined the University of Jammu as a lecturer in the Post Graduate Department of History.

Besides teaching at the department, he also took the mantle of the J&K State President, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and following a directive from the RSS joined the BJP.

Dr Nirmal Singh has done PhD in history from University of Jammu in 1988 and retired as a professor in the Department of History, the University of Jammu in 2017.

He was appointed the State General Secretary of the party in 1998.

Singh contested several Lok Sabha and state assembly elections.

His first election was 2002 Lok Sabha By-Election from Jammu (Lok Sabha constituency), he came second with 1,98,277 votes and Chowdhary Talib Hussein of Jammu & Kashmir National Conference was declared victorious under allegations of heavy rigging.

Dr Nirmal Singh was among the first politicians from Jammu to demand the Reorganisation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir on a regional basis amid heavy discrimination with Jammu and Ladakh regions by Kashmir centric state governments.

While he was the State President of Bharatiya Janata Party he released a booklet containing figures to show how Jammu was discriminated against by the state government.

In that booklet, he pointed out that out of 2.5 lakh total State Government employees only one lakh were from the Jammu region in 2004.

The State Secretariat had over 85 per cent of employees belonging to Kashmir, while their strength was about 15 per cent from Jammu.

The booklet indicated that the investment in the irrigation projects in Kashmir was Rs 38.98 crore against Rs 14.15 crore in Jammu where the geographical area was 26,293 km2 against 15,953 km2 in the Kashmir valley.

The Booklet also pointed out that Jammu was denied its due share of seats in the Assembly with only 37 seats to the region against 46 of Kashmir.

More importantly, in 2004, the average number of voters per Assembly Constituency in the Kashmir region was 55,367 while in Jammu was 78,170 and an average number of voters per Lok Sabha Constituency in Kashmir region was 8,48,971 while in Jammu was 14,46,145.

Jammu has 2 Lok Sabha Constituencies and Kashmir has 3.

Singh contested his second election again from Jammu (Lok Sabha constituency) during 2004 Indian general election.

This time he lost with a margin of 17,558 votes against Congressman Madan Lal Sharma.

In 2008, Singh contested from Gandhinagar Assembly Constituency against Raman Bhalla of Indian National Congress.

He lost the election by 2263 votes.

During 2009 Indian general election Singh contested from Udhampur (Lok Sabha constituency) against Chaudhary Lal Singh of Congress.

Lal singh won the election with a margin of 13,394 votes.

He was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly in the 2014 assembly election from Billawar in Kathua district.

After being elected to J&K Legislative Assembly in 2014 and becoming Deputy Chief Minister of the erstwhile State, Dr Singh acted as a guide for two of his students who were preparing for PhD thesis submission.

Despite being busy with his new assignment as DyCM, Singh ensured he is present at the university to watch the submission.

Singh won his first election during 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election from Billawar constituency in Kathua district by defeating sitting Congress MLA by a margin of nearly 17,975 votes.

He scored 43,447 votes while his closest rival Manohar Lal Sharma of Congress could get only 25,472 votes.

BJP got 25 seats and formed the Government with Peoples Democratic Party with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

On 1 March 2015, he assumed the charge of the Minister for Power Development and Housing and Urban Development.

On March 1, 2015, the newly elected ministers took oath to their respective offices.

Singh became the first BJP Deputy Chief Minister and took charge of Minister of Power Development as well as the Minister of Housing & Urban Development in the Cabinet on the same day.