New Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satyapal Malik will be the first career politician to be appointed to the position in the last 51 years, indicating a change in the strategy of the Centre, which has so far relied on ex-bureaucrats to run the show in the troubled state.
Here we present 10 facts about Jammu & Kashmir’s new Governor Satyapal Malik that you should know!
- The 72-year-old Malik has been associated with almost all political hues, starting as a socialist student leader to the vice-president of the BJP, before being appointed Bihar governor last year.
- He will be the first career politician to be appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir in 51 years after Karan Singh whose term had ended in 1967.
- Malik holds a BSc and LLB from Meerut University along with a Diploma in Parliamentary Affairs from Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies run by Parliament of India.
- Inspired by Ram Manohar Lohia, Malik started his political career as a student leader in Meerut University and became MLA of Charan Singh’s Bhartiya Kranti Dal from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh in 1974.
Read also: J&K’s first mobile call was made to Atal Bihari Vajpayee - He joined the Congress in 1984 and became its Rajya Sabha MP but resigned three years later in the wake of the Bofors scam. He switched to the VP Singh-led Janta Dal in 1988 and became an MP from Aligarh on its ticket in 1989.
- In 2004, Malik joined the BJP and unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha elections, losing to former prime minister Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh.
- He was the national vice president of the BJP when he was appointed the governor by President Ram Nath Kovind, who had vacated the same seat.
- Before taking oath as Bihar governor on October 4, 2017, he was in charge of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha.
- He was the Union minister of state, parliamentary affairs and tourism from April 21, 1990 to November 10, 1990.
- He is also an agriculturist, and active social worker with an experience of over 50 years in social development
