Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Kavinder Gupta resigned on Thursday after serving less than nine months in office. He was appointed as the governor of the union territory in July last year.
Gupta also served as the former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir.
Gupta, who started his tenure as a worker of the Rashtriya Swayamasevak Sangh, the third LG of Ladakh, succeeds Brigadier General BD Mishra, who took over the post in February 2024.
Brigadier General Mishra has been appointed after RK Mathur, who was the first LG of Ladakh, after the reorganization of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019.
At the time of his swearing-in, Kavinder Gupta asserted that he would work “united for the development of Ladakh”.
On July 17, Gupta, after his appointment as LG, expressed his gratitude to President Draupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP workers.
Gupta, a veteran BJP leader from Jammu’s Janipur, has held several key positions in the past. He was the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council 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 West Jammu Assembly segment, but the party changed its candidates at the last minute.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he was shifted to Gandhi Nagar Assembly segment in Jammu city, which was considered a Congress stronghold, where he defeated senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla.
During his tenure, Ladakh witnessed widespread protests and agitations with widespread youth-led agitations. Civil society groups, such as Les Apex and the Kargil Democratic Alliance, have been protesting for several reasons, including demanding statehood, protection of the Sixth Schedule, and reservation of jobs for locals.
