Kavinder Gupta: 10 things to know about new Jammu and Kashmir deputy chief minister

Kavinder Gupta joined the RSS at the age of 13.

Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta on Monday replaced Nirmal Singh as Deputy Chief Minister in the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government. Photo: ANI

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta on Monday replaced Nirmal Singh as Deputy Chief Minister in the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP coalition government. In the major cabinet reshuffle, seven others were also sworn in as ministers in the state government.

• Kavinder Gupta, 58, first stepped into an RSS 'shakha' when in his early teens and for decades has been an active political worker.
• Kavinder Gupta has even spent 13 months in jail during the emergency.
• Born December 2nd, 1959, Gupta is a graduate, who has three children including two daughters.
• He was secretary of the Punjab Vishav Hindu Parishad in 1978-79.
• He headed the J&K unit of the Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP, for two consecutive terms from 1993 till 1998.
• Gupta has also served as the mayor of Jammu for three terms consecutively from 2005 to 2010, which is a record.
• He has also been a general secretary of the BJP's state unit.
• He was elected as an MLA for the first time in 2014 from the Gandhi Nagar seat where he defeated a sitting Congress minister Raman Bhalla.
• Gupta was soon unanimously elected as the Speaker of the J&K Assembly.
• He is known for his work for the upliftment of the poor and downtrodden sections of the society as well as efforts to eradicate social evils.

(With inputs from PTI)