Prez appoints new Hry, Goa Governors and Ladakh LG
In a press communique, the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that the President has also accepted the resignation of Brigadier (Dr) BD Mishra (retd) as the lieutenant governor of Union territory of Ladakh and appointed Gupta as his successor.
All appointments would take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices, the release added.
Gupta, 65, is also a three-term former mayor of Jammu. On April 30, 2018, he was appointed as the deputy chief minister in the PDP-BJP coalition government in the erstwhile state of J&K. He, however, quit the post 51 days later on June 19 as the BJP pulled out from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led alliance, bringing an end to the Mehbooba Mufti-led government.
In 2019, the erstwhile state of J&K was bifurcated into two Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. While the former has an elected legislature, the UT of Ladakh is administered directly by the Union government through a lieutenant governor, without a legislature, under the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
On March 19, 2015, Gupta was elected as the speaker of the J&K legislative assembly, becoming only the first BJP leader to hold the post at the time. In the 2014 assembly elections, Gupta had defeated Raman Bhalla of the Congress in the Gandhinagar constituency in J&K.
Gupta has been associated with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) as well as the BJP's ideological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the past.
Gupta will take over as the LG of Ladakh from BD Mishra, a former brigadier of the Indian Army and a former commander of the Counter Hijack Force of the National Security Guard (NSG), also known as the Black Cat Commandos. After an illustrious career spanning over 33 years, Mishra retired from the army on July 31, 1995, and took over as the governor of Arunachal Pradesh on October 3, 2017. Mishra was only the second LG of Ladakh after Radha Krishnan Mathur, who served for three years, from October 31, 2019 to February 11, 2023.
Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the new governor of Goa, is a former Union minister and a senior leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key ally of the BJP in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA). He served as the civil aviation minister for four years during the first term of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
He resigned from the Union Cabinet after the TDP, headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, walked out of NDA over the party's demand of special status for Andhra Pradesh. The Naidu-led party returned to the NDA fold in the run-up to the simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Andhra Pradesh assembly early last year.
Raju's elevation to the gubernatorial post underlines the BJP's willingness to share key postings with its NDA allies. Raju also has a rich experience in legislative politics as a seven-term MLA and one-term Lok Sabha MP.
Prof Ashim Kumar Ghosh, the new governor of Haryana, is a former BJP West Bengal unit president. A respected academic and political thinker, Ghosh had contested the Lok Sabha elections, albeit unsuccessfully, from the eastern state. A section of the BJP West Bengal unit sees the elevation of its old guard as a plan to allow more space for the young leadership in the state, which will head to the assembly polls next year.
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