Early Times Report
Jammu, July 14: Kavinder Gupta’s political journey has been shaped by early activism and close association with some of the country’s most prominent leaders. As a Class 11 student, he was jailed during the Emergency in 1975 and spent 13 months in Patiala Jail alongside national stalwarts like former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar, Akali leaders Jagdev Singh Talwandi and Jeevan Singh Umranangal, and BJP veteran Babu Hitabileshi. Picked up from Gurdaspur, where his father was posted in the Postal and Telegraph Department, Gupta was immersed in the political atmosphere of resistance at just 16, gaining valuable insights from his fellow inmates.
Though his formal electoral career began in Jammu and Kashmir, his political grooming occurred in Punjab, where he served as State Secretary of ABVP for three years. A native of Smailpur village—the birthplace of Pandit Prem Nath Dogra, founding leader of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh—Gupta formally joined the BJP in 1988 as District President of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM). He went on to serve as State President of BJYM from 1993 to 1998.
In the 2002 and 2008 Assembly elections, Gupta was initially nominated from the Jammu West constituency, but his candidature was withdrawn at the last moment by the party. In the 2014 Assembly elections, he was fielded from the Gandhi Nagar constituency—a traditional Congress stronghold—where he scored a major victory over senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla.
Gupta was also the first Mayor of the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) and held the position for three consecutive terms, laying the groundwork for his legislative career. On March 18, 2015, he was elected Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, a position he held until April 29, 2018.
In 2018, Gupta was elevated as Deputy Chief Minister, replacing Dr. Nirmal Singh, during a turbulent period marked by political instability and public unrest over the Kathua rape case, which had strained the BJP-PDP coalition government.
Known for his low-profile approach, RSS discipline, and grassroots connect, Gupta has long championed balanced development across all three regions of the former state—Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh. |
