BJP leader of high stature, who challenges party leadership passed away @79
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ August 5,2025
Satyapal Malik, 79 years old, a BJP leader of high stature and former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir passed away at Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.
He had been admitted to the hospital for the last few months and was suffering from kidney problems.
Malik was born in Hisawada village of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh in a Jat family.He pursued Bachelor of Science and LLB degrees from Meerut University. In 1968–69, Malik was elected as the students union president, commencing his political career. Former governor had stated that after a political career spanning 50 years, he still lived in a one-room house and was in debt.
He is the leader who challenges party leadership, when he was alive. Once he had said, “Whether I live or not, I want to tell the truth to my countrymen. When I was on the post of Governor, I was offered bribes of Rs. 150-150 crores, but I continued to work honestly like my political guru, farmer messiah late Chaudhary Charan Singh ji and he could never shake my integrity.” He had added that “The government is trying to find an excuse to trap me in a false chargesheet by threatening me with the CBI. I myself had cancelled the tender in which they want to trap me. I myself had told the Prime Minister that there was corruption in this case and after telling him, I myself cancelled the tender. After my transfer, this tender was done with someone else’s signature.”
Malik had stood by the farmers during the year-long agitation against the now repealed farm laws. The former J&K Governor has claimed that after the February 14, 2019, Pulwama attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked him to stay silent over some alleged lapses he flagged.
About Political Career
His first prominent stint as a politician was as a member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly during 1974–77. He represented Uttar Pradesh in Rajya Sabha from 1980 to 1986 and 1986–89. He was member of the 9th Lok Sabha from Aligarh, from 1989 to 1991, as member of Janata Dal. He was the Governor of Bihar from October 2017 to August 2018.On 21 March 2018, he was also given additional charge to serve as Governor of Odisha up to 28 May 2018. In August 2018, he was appointed Governor to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
