Former BJP leader and Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik was on Tuesday, 21 August, appointed the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir. His appointment assumes special significance as the conflict-ridden state is under governor’s rule at present.
He will be the first career politician to be appointed as the governor of Jammu and Kashmir in 51 years after Karan Singh whose term had ended in 1967.
Malik was appointed the Governor of Bihar in September 2017, after the post fell vacant following Ram Nath Kovind’s nomination by the BJP for presidency.
Political Innings
The 72-year-old Malik has been associated with almost all political hues, starting as a socialist student leader to becoming the vice president of the BJP, before being appointed as the Bihar governor last year.
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.
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.
The Jan Morcha later merged with other like-minded parties to form the Janata Dal. I have been an MP too (Rajya Sabha member in 1980 and 1989, Lok Sabha member from Aligarh in 1989). I became a minister of state (for parliamentary affairs and tourism) in his (VP Singh’s) Cabinet when he became the prime minister.Satya Pal Malik to The Tribune
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. When asked how acquainted he was with Bihar politics, Malik told the newspaper:
“I know chief minister Nitish Kumar since the time when Chaudhary Charan Singh was the Prime Minister (1979). I was senior to him. I know him personally too and like him. Both of us were ministers in the VP Singh government at the Centre. Similarly, I know Laluji too and other leaders from Bihar.”
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.
NN Vohra, the 12th Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, took charge of the state after governor’s rule was imposed following the BJP-PDP government’s collapse in June 2017. He had taken the hot seat back in 2008 and once more in 2013.
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