Former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik passed away on Tuesday (August 5, 2025). He has also served as the Governor of Meghalaya, Goa, Odisha and Bihar. He was 79-years old.

Malik entered politics in the mid-1960s inspired by the socialist ideology of Ram Manohar Lohia. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2004 and was appointed its national vice-president in 2012. He was a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team in the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Belonging to the politically influential Jat community, Malik hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat and also has ancestral roots in Haryana.

He had a brief stint with the Congress in the mid-1980s. Malik was the general secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha before quitting the party in 1987 over the Bofors scam. He was one of the founders of the Jan Morcha, which later became the Janata Dal in 1988.

Malik was appointed Bihar Governor in 2017. He was sent to Jammu and Kashmir in August 2018. He was at the helm when the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 was revoked on this day in 2019. He was transferred to Goa in October 2019. In just nine months, he was moved to Meghalaya. He retired as Meghalaya Governor on October 4, 2022.