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Kavinder Gupta, recently appointed as the Himachal Pradesh Governor after serving as the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, arrived in Shimla on Monday evening ahead of his swearing-in ceremony.
Gupta, accompanied by his wife Bindu Gupta, was accorded a warm welcome at Lok Bhavan by Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Deputy Chief Minister Mukesh Agnihotri, Speaker Kuldeep Singh Pathania, Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur, Health Minister Dr. (Col.) Dhani Ram Shandil, senior officials and Raj Bhavan staff. He is scheduled to take the oath as the 30th Governor of Himachal Pradesh on March 10 at 11:45 a.m. Speaking briefly to the media after his arrival, Gupta thanked the President and the Prime Minister for entrusting him with the responsibility. "I am happy that the President and the Prime Minister have shown faith in me and given me such a big responsibility," he said. Gupta said he believes in working collectively and taking all sections of society along. "It has always been my habit to move forward by taking everyone together. We will work by taking all sections of society along for the betterment of the state," he said. Thanking the Chief Minister for the warm reception, he added, "First of all, I would like to thank the Chief Minister for giving such a wonderful reception here." Gupta described his new role as both a responsibility and a challenge. "Perhaps I am the first person who has received such a promotion within seven months. Naturally, it is a responsibility and a challenge. We will work together with everyone," he said. Kavinder Gupta, born on December 2, 1959, in Jammu, is a senior public figure with over four decades of experience in public life and governance. He began his social and political journey with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the early 1970s and was jailed during the Emergency (1975-77) for his activism alongside senior RSS leaders. Gupta later served as Secretary of the Punjab unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) between 1978 and 1979. He held several organisational positions in the Bharatiya Janata Party's youth wing, including District President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in 1988 and State President of BJYM in Jammu and Kashmir from 1993 to 1998. Gupta entered electoral politics at the municipal level and became the first Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation, serving three consecutive terms from 2005 to 2010. In 2014, he was elected BJP MLA from the Gandhi Nagar Assembly constituency in Jammu. In March 2015, he became Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, the first BJP leader to hold the post in the state. He later served as Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir after his appointment in April 2018. On July 14, 2025, he was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, focusing on infrastructure development, renewable energy, tourism and sustainable governance in the Union Territory. On March 5, 2026, the President of India appointed him Governor of Himachal Pradesh. (ANI)
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