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WHO IS JAMYANG TSERING NAMGYAL

Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, popularly known as JTN, is a Member of Parliament from the Ladakh Lok Sabha constituency. Namgyal, a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was born in Matho village on August 4, 1985.
 
After switching a couple of teaching jobs, he decided to pursue his studies from the Jammu University. Between 2011 and 2012, he was the president of All Ladakh Student Association in Jammu, following which he joined the BJP and served as Private Secretary to the Member of Parliament from Ladakh Thupstan Chhewang.
 
He contested election to the Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Leh, in 2015 from Martselang Constituency and won by a record margin. Later, he was elected as Chief Executive Councillor to the LAHDC.
 
In 2019, Namgyal contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Ladakh constituency, comprising Leh and Kargil districts. Of the total of 126,426 votes that were cast in the constituency, Namgyal polled 42,914, beating his nearest rival Sajjad Hussai by 10,930 votes.
 
His speech on the Centre's move to bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir [watch here] in Parliament on August 6, 2019, turned him into an overnight sensation across India. Jamyang Tsering Namgyal's speech focused on Ladakh’s demand to become a Union Territory. He said: "We have struggled for 71 years to make Ladakh a Union Territory and to be part of India. The earlier governments gave us no audience and never tried to understand us."
 
He hailed the government's decision to bifurcate J&K and turn Ladakh into a Union Territory like Chandigarh. Namgyal’s fiery speech in the Lok Sabha won him praise from the likes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and other lawmakers. He became the first Ladakhi to trend with more than 45,000 tweets mentioning him. His followers on his Twitter handle multiplied almost 50 times to 160,000 from less than 4,000 before his speech.
 
His Lok Sabha profile also states that he has a prolific art and writing background. He has published a book titled "Nyam-rtsom Gyi Leg-skyes" (A Gift of Poetry), is a teacher, a director at an arts school, and is also into organic farming.

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