New Delhi [India], July 25 (HBTV): The President of India has accepted the resignation of Brigadier (Dr) BD Mishra (Retd) as the Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Ladakh and appointed Kavinder Gupta as his successor.

The President has also appointed Prof. Ashim Kumar Ghosh as the new Governor of Haryana and Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju as the Governor of Goa.

BD Mishra, a former Brigadier of the Indian Army, served as the Commander of the Counter Hijack Force of the National Security Guard (NSG), also known as the Black Cat Commandos. After a distinguished career of over 33 years, he retired from the Army on July 31, 1995, and assumed office as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh on October 3, 2017.

He was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh on February 12, 2023, following the resignation of Radha Krishnan Mathur. Mishra became the second Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh after Mathur, who served from October 31, 2019, to February 11, 2023.

Kavinder Gupta, who will succeed Mishra, is a senior BJP leader from Jammu and Kashmir. He previously served as the Deputy Chief Minister under Mehbooba Mufti.

Prof. Ashim Kumar Ghosh, a respected academic and political thinker, has been appointed as the Governor of Haryana. Ashok Gajapathi Raju, a veteran politician and former Union Civil Aviation Minister, will take over as the Governor of Goa, succeeding PS Sreedharan Pillai.

According to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the appointments will take effect from the dates the appointees assume charge of their respective offices.

A day earlier, President Droupadi Murmu also nominated several individuals to the Rajya Sabha, including former Foreign Secretary Harshvardhan Shringla, Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Deorao Nikam, veteran social worker C. Sadanandan Master, and noted historian Meenakshi Jain.

Ujjwal Nikam is best known for prosecuting high-profile criminal cases, including the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks trial of Ajmal Kasab and the 1993 Bombay blasts case.

Harshvardhan Shringla, a seasoned diplomat, served as India’s Ambassador to the United States and Bangladesh, and as Foreign Secretary from January 2020 to April 2022.

Other nominees include C. Sadanandan Master, a veteran educationist and grassroots social worker from Kerala, and Meenakshi Jain, an eminent historian and academic recognised for her contributions to Indian historical studies and civilisation research.

(ANI)