Newly appointed cabinet minister Kirti Vardhan Singh on Tuesday assumed office as Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in the newly formed National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre.
Ahead of his first day in office, the 58-year-old Lok Sabha MP from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh with a keen interest in the environment planted saplings at his residence in the national capital today.
Speaking with ANI, Singh said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has provided me with a big responsibility which I will carry out in the best possible manner. I firmly believe that we will receive guidance from Narendra Modi Ji and Cabinet Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupendra Yadav Ji to work towards the welfare and betterment of the society.”
Earlier today, Minister of External Affairs, Dr S Jaishankar welcomed Kirti Vardhan Singh and Pabitra Margherita as Ministers of State in the newly constituted cabinet of the BJP-led NDA government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“Welcome colleagues MoS @KVSinghMPGonda & MoS @PmargheritaBJP to the Ministry,” said Jaishankar in a post on social media platform X.
On the opposition’s criticism that the NDA government would not last long, Singh said, “It’s very common for them to give such statements. The opposition had never a constructive thought. We have witnessed the opposition’s behaviour in the last decade, how they disrupted the parliament and never discussed fruitfully on any matter.”
Slamming the INDIA bloc for lacking in unity, Singh said, “I want to ask the opposition that if we assume that our government fails, do they have the courage to tell us the name of their PM candidate? They haven’t been able to speak about this.”
Singh has been representing the Gonda constituency in Parliament for the past four consecutive terms. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections Singh defeated Shreya Verma of Samajwadi Party from Gonda seat by 46,224 votes. Singh was sworn into the 71-member Council of Minister of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday evening in a ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
He was a member of the 12th and 14th Lok Sabha as a Samajwadi Party candidate. In March 2014, he resigned from the SP and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and contested the 2014 parliamentary elections, again from Gonda, where he was elected in the 16th and 17 Lok Sabhas.