Kavinder Gupta (born 2 December 1959) is an Indian politician from the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. He is the last

Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir The Deputy Chief Minister of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir was a position that existed within the cabinet of Jammu and Kashmir, an Indian state between 1954 and 2019. The state was reconstituted by the government of India as the union ter ...

state.

Personal life

Kavinder Gupta was born on 2 December 1959. He has three children – two daughters and one son.

Political career

Gupta joined the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family" ...

at the age of thirteen. He was jailed for thirteen months during The Emergency. Gupta served as the secretary of the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

unit of the

Vishva Hindu Parishad The Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) () is an Indian right-wing Hindu organization based on Hindu nationalism. The VHP was founded in 1964 by M. S. Golwalkar and S. S. Apte in collaboration with Swami Chinmayananda. Its stated objective is "to ...

from 1978 to 1979. He also served as the chief of the

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

unit of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha from 1993 till 1998. Gupta was elected mayor of the city of

Jammu Jammu is the winter capital of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir. It is the headquarters and the largest city in Jammu district of the union territory. Lying on the banks of the river Tawi Ri ...

for a record three consecutive terms, from 2005 to 2010. In the

2014 Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, 2014 was held in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir in five phases from 25 November – 20 December 2014. Voters elected 87 members to the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, which en ...

, he contested as a member of

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Modi ...

and was elected a

Member of Legislative Assembly A member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) is a representative elected by the voters of a constituency to a legislative assembly. Most often, the term refers to a subnational assembly such as that of a state, province, or territory of a country. S ...

from the Gandhinagar constituency. He defeated Raman Bhalla of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...

, the incumbent. On 19 March 2015, Gupta was elected

speaker Speaker may refer to: Society and politics * Speaker (politics), the presiding officer in a legislative assembly * Public speaker, one who gives a speech or lecture * A person producing speech: the producer of a given utterance, especially: ** In ...

of the assembly. He also became the first ever Bharatiya Janata Party leader to be appointed as the speaker. On 30 April 2018, Gupta was appointed as the

state as a part of a cabinet reshuffle. He succeeded

Nirmal Kumar Singh Dr Nirmal Kumar Singh is an Indian politician and was the last Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly of the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir State. He is a former Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He is a leader of Bharatiya ...

. On 19 June 2018, Gupta resigned from the post of Deputy Chief Minister after 51 days of taking the oath as BJP pulled out from the alliance with PDP.

Ram Madhav Varanasi Ram Madhav (born 22 August 1964) is an Indian politician who served as the National General Secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was a member of the National Executive of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and has authored a few bo ...

, then BJP National General Secretary, presided over the press conference in which the announcement to end the alliance was made. He criticised the CM

Mehbooba Mufti Mehbooba may refer to *Mehbooba (1976 film), ''Mehbooba'' (1976 film), a Hindi-language film *Mehbooba (2008 film), ''Mehbooba'' (2008 film), a Hindi-language romance film *Mehbooba (2018 film), ''Mehbooba'' (2018 film), a Telugu-language film *Mehb ...

-led government, saying it had "failed in its responsibility." He added that increase in violence, threat to fundamental rights and increase in radicalisation were the main factors behind the BJP's decision to quit the J&K coalition government.

Controversies

In February 2015, Gupta courted controversy by blaming the Rohingya Muslim refugees for the

2018 Sunjuwan attack On 10 February 2018, at predawn, Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist attacked an Indian Army camp in Sunjuwan, Jammu, in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. 6 soldiers, 3 attackers and 1 civilian were killed and 20 injured including 14 soldiers, five ...

on an army camp. After being sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state, Gupta stated that the

Kathua rape case The Kathua rape case involved the abduction, gang rape, and murder of an 8-year-old Muslim girl, Asifa Bano, by six men and a juvenile, in January 2018 in the Rasana village near Kathua in Jammu and Kashmir, India. A chargesheet for the case ...

was a "small incident

hich Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...

should not be given too much importance". Hindu right-wing groups had held rallies supporting the accused in the case, the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl. He faced criticism from opposition Congress party and opposition leader

Omar Abdullah Omar Abdullah (; born 10 March 1970) is an Indian politician and former Chief Minister of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. He became the 11th and the youngest Chief Minister of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, after forming a governme ...

. Gupta later said that the media had misinterpreted his comment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Kavinder Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Jammu and Kashmir Speakers of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly Jammu and Kashmir MLAs 2014–2018 Living people Deputy chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir 1959 births