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| Kavinder Gupta resigns as Ladakh LG, likely to get another assignment | | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Mar 5: In a surprising political development, Kavinder Gupta has resigned from his position as Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh.
According to sources, Gupta submitted his resignation on Thursday following directions from the top leadership of the government.
“Kavinder Gupta was asked to submit his resignation as the top leadership in the government has decided to assign him another important responsibility,” sources said.
Gupta was appointed to the post on July 14, 2025, following the resignation of his predecessor, Brigadier (Dr) B.D. Mishra (Retd), which was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu.
During his tenure as Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, Gupta dealt with violent protests in Leh in September 2025. It was also during his tenure that the stalled dialogue between the agitating groups of Ladakh and the Union Government was resumed.
Gupta is a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader from Jammu and Kashmir and had previously served as the Deputy Chief Minister in the government led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
A former Speaker and the last Deputy Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, Kavinder Bhushan Gupta was appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh by the President of India in July 2025.
A veteran BJP leader with deep roots in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Gupta’s political career was influenced by several national stalwarts, including former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Akali leaders Jagdev Singh Talwandi and Jeevan Singh Umranangal, and BJP leader Babu Hitabileshi.
While still a student in Class 11, Gupta spent 13 months in Patiala Jail during the Emergency imposed in 1975. At the time, he was picked up from Gurdaspur, where his father was posted, and lodged in Patiala Jail along with several prominent political leaders.
At the young age of 16, he had the rare opportunity Gupta was appointed to the post on July 14, 2025, following the resignation of his predecessor, Brigadier (Dr) B.D. Mishra (Retd).
During his tenure as LG of Ladakh, Gupta dealt with violent protests in Leh in September 2025. It was also during his tenure that the stalled dialogue between the agitating groups of Ladakh and the Union Government was resumed.
Gupta is a senior BJP leader from Jammu and Kashmir and had previously served as the Deputy Chief Minister in the government led by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Gupta was also the first Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and served three consecutive terms in the position.
Although Gupta’s electoral career began in his native Jammu and Kashmir, his early political grooming took place in Punjab, where he served as State Secretary of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for three years.
His father, an employee in the Postal and Telegraph Department, was posted at various places, including Gurdaspur and later Srinagar, where the family subsequently moved.
A native of Smailpur village—the birthplace of Pandit Prem Nath Dogra, one of the founding leaders of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh—Gupta formally joined the BJP in 1988 when he was appointed District President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the party’s youth wing. From 1993 to 1998, he served as the State President of the BJYM.
In the 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections, Gupta was initially given the BJP mandate from the Jammu West Assembly constituency, but the party changed its candidates at the last moment.
In the 2014 Assembly elections, he was fielded from the Gandhi Nagar Assembly constituency in Jammu city—then considered a Congress stronghold—where he defeated senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla.
Gupta was also the first Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and served three consecutive terms in the position.
On March 18, 2015, he was elected Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, a position he held until April 29, 2018.
Later in 2018, he was appointed Deputy Chief Minister, replacing Dr Nirmal Singh, during a politically sensitive period marked by public unrest over the Kathua gang rape case and tensions within the ruling coalition.
Known for his low-key demeanour and strong grassroots connect, Gupta has consistently emphasized balanced development across the three regions—Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. |
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