SRINAGAR: In a surprise, Kavinder Gupta on Thursday resigned as Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh, just eight months after taking over.
Just a few hours before his resignation, Gupta had inaugurated the state-of-the-art Automated Driving Test Centre (ADTC) and Automated Testing Station (ATS) at Phyang in Leh.
Sources said Gupta, who had taken over as Lt Governor on July 14, 2025, tendered his resignation immediately after receiving a direction from the central leadership.
Gupta was the third Lt Governor of Ladakh since 2019 after the scrapping of Article 370 and bifurcation of the erstwhile J&K state into two Union territories.
His tenure was marred by one of the worst incidents of violence in the history of the otherwise peaceful Ladakh. On September 4 last year, four people were killed and 80 injured when a protest in support of statehood and 6th Schedule in Leh turned violent and police had to fire on the mob to control the situation.
Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) co-chairman Asgar Karbalai said, “More than 80 persons including our hero Sonam Wangchuk were arrested.”
Karbalai said the unfortunate incident could have been averted had the proper SOPs been followed.
He added, “All the heads of prominent departments were from Jammu. LG was from Jammu, DG was from Jammu and Chief Secretary was from Jammu.”
Leh Apex Body (LAB) co-chair Chering Dorjey said, “People were not happy with his appointment and his tenure was not good for Ladakh.”
According to Dorjey, the resignation of Gupta won’t have any impact on their talks with the Centre on the 6th Schedule and statehood for Ladakh.
Gupta, a senior J&K BJP leader, had served as Deputy Chief Minister of the PDP-BJP coalition government in 2018 and Speaker of the J&K Legislative Assembly.
His appointment as Ladakh Lt Governor had come after he was denied a ticket by the party to contest the Assembly elections in J&K.