Kavinder Gupta: from VHP to Himachal Pradesh Governor

BJP leader and former Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta has been appointed Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

In an official communication issued by Rashtrapati Bhavan, it was stated that Mr. Gupta, who stepped down as the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh on Thursday (March 5, 2026), will now assume charge as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

All you need to know about the politician turned Governor.

Early life and career

Born on December 2, 1959, Kavinder Gupta hails from the Janipur locality of Jammu city.

He became associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) at the age of thirteen and was imprisoned for thirteen months during The Emergency. Between 1978 and 1979, he served as secretary of the Punjab unit of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP).

Mr. Gupta was elected Mayor of Jammu for a record three consecutive terms from 2005 to 2010. He also held the post of general secretary of the BJP’s State unit and headed the J&K unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) for two consecutive terms from 1993 to 1998.

Political stint

In the 2014 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, Mr. Gupta contested on a BJP ticket and was elected a Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) for the first time from the Gandhinagar constituency, defeating the then sitting Congress MLA Raman Bhalla. On March 19, 2015, he was elected Speaker of the Assembly, becoming the first BJP leader to be appointed to the position.

Over the years, Mr. Gupta has occupied several important positions in government and within his party. He served as Deputy Chief Minister in 2018 during the BJP-PDP coalition government.

He was appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir on April 30, 2018, following a cabinet reshuffle. However, he resigned on June 19, 2018, after just 51 days in office, as the BJP pulled out from the alliance with PDP.

As Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh

Mr. Gupta was appointed the third Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of Ladakh on July 14, 2025, by President Droupadi Murmu. He assumed office on February 19, 2023, succeeding Brigadier Dr. B. D. Mishra (Retd), who stepped down citing health reasons.

He became the first politician to serve as L-G of Ladakh, a Union Territory carved out of Jammu and Kashmir in 2019. He is the third L-G of the region, after the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir was split into two Union Territories.

His tenure witnessed unprecedented violence on September 24, 2025, in Leh city in which four people, including a Kargil war veteran, were killed in police firing when a protest demanding constitutional safeguards for the region turned violent.