Former Indian Ambassador to the United States Taranjit Singh Sandhu who has been appointed as the new Lieutenant Governor of Delhi brings over 35 years in the Indian Foreign Service. He will be serving as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi since 2026. He previously served as High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka and 28th Ambassador of India to the United States.
Born January 23, 1963, he graduated from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru University. He served as India’s Ambassador to the United States from 2020 to 2024, bolstering bilateral ties. Sandhu also acted as High Commissioner to Sri Lanka from 2017 to 2020.
Sandhu has served in the Indian Mission in Washington DC twice. Sandhu was also the high commissioner of India to Sri Lanka from January 2017 to January 2020. He had also served at the High Commission of India, Colombo earlier as the head of the political wing from December 2000 to September 2004.
After retiring from the IFS in 2024, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and ran in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar. President Murmu’s communique confirmed his Delhi LG role Thursday. This marks his shift from diplomacy to constitutional administration.
As for his political career, it began in early 2024 following a distinguished 36-year tenure in the Indian Foreign Service (IFS). Sandhu officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 19 March 2024 at the party headquarters in New Delhi. Making election debut, he also contested 2024 Lok Sabha Elections as the BJP’s nominee for Punjab’s Amritsar seat and finished in third place, securing 2,07,205 votes (approximately 22.88% of the vote share). He lost to the incumbent Congress MP, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, by a margin of over 47,000 votes.
He became the chairman of the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum’s (USISPF) Geopolitical Institute and an advisor to the board in July 2025.
Sandhu will replace Vinai Kumar Saxena, who has served as Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor since May 26, 2022. Saxena has now been appointed as the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, replacing Kavinder Gupta, who will take charge as Governor of Himachal Pradesh.
The appointments are part of a broader reshuffle of Governors and Lieutenant Governors across several states and Union Territories announced by President Droupadi Murmu. The changes will come into effect once the appointees assume charge of their respective offices.
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