Ladakh governor Kavinder Gupta resigns after less than a year in office| India News

Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta resigned on Thursday after serving less than nine months in office. He was appointed the Governor of the Union Territory in July last year.

Gupta has also served as the former deputy chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

Gupta, who started off as a Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh worker, was the third LG of Ladakh, succeeding Brigadier BD Mishra, who assumed the role in February 2024.

Brigadier Mishra was appointed after R K Mathur, who was Ladakh’s first LG, after Jammu and Kashmir was reorganised in 2019.

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At the time of his oath-taking, Kavinder Gupta assured that he would work “unitedly for the development of Ladakh.”

On July 17, Gupta, after being appointed as the LG, expressed his gratitude to President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP workers.

A veteran BJP leader from Jammu’s Janipur, Gupta has held several key posts in the past. He was the speaker of the J&K legislative assembly and also served as mayor of Jammu for three consecutive terms.

In the 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections, Gupta was initially given the BJP mandate from the Jammu West assembly segment, but the party changed its candidates at the last minute.

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In the 2014 assembly polls, he was shifted to the Gandhi Nagar assembly segment in Jammu city, then considered a Congress stronghold, where he defeated senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla.

Under his tenure, Ladakh saw massive protests and unrest with widespread youth-led agitations. Civil society groups such as the Leh Apex Body and Kargil Democratic Alliance have been protesting for several reasons, including for statehood, Sixth Schedule protections, and job reservations for locals.

Additionally, CV Ananda Bose also resigned from the post of West Bengal Governor, earlier today, after sending his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu.