Satya Pal Malik, the former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, passed away on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, at the age of 79. Malik had an extensive political career, also serving as the Governor of Meghalaya, Goa, Odisha, and Bihar.
A staunch follower of socialist ideologies, Malik was inspired by Ram Manohar Lohia’s vision and began his political journey in the mid-1960s. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2004 and went on to become the party’s national vice-president in 2012. Malik was an influential member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s team during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign.
Belonging to the influential Jat community, Malik hailed from Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh, with ancestral ties to Haryana.
Malik’s political career was marked by a brief association with the Congress party in the mid-1980s. He served as the General Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee and was elected to the Rajya Sabha. However, his exit from Congress came in 1987 over the Bofors scandal. He later became one of the founding members of Jan Morcha, which eventually transformed into the Janata Dal in 1988.
He was appointed as the Governor of Bihar in 2017 before being sent to Jammu and Kashmir in August 2018, a tenure during which he oversaw the historic revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 in August 2019. Following his time in Kashmir, Malik was transferred to Goa in October 2019, and subsequently moved to Meghalaya in 2020. He retired as Governor of Meghalaya on October 4, 2022.
Malik’s passing marks the end of a long and impactful political journey, and his contributions to the nation are remembered with respect.
