President Droupadi Murmu appoints new Governors for nine states
President Droupadi Murmu has appointed new Governors in nine states and a new Lieutenant Governor in Puducherry, according to a communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday night.
The appointments are set to take effect from the dates the new appointees assume charge of their respective offices.
K Kailashnathan, the former Chief Principal Secretary to the Gujarat Chief Minister, will be the new Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry. Kailashnathan, who served as a close aide to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister, retired in June after 18 years in the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office.
In Rajasthan, former Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Haribhau Kisanrao Bagde has been appointed as the new Governor. Bagde, a veteran BJP leader, will succeed Kalraj Mishra.
Meanwhile, Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria has been appointed as the Governor of Punjab and will also serve as the Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Kataria is a BJP leader with a background as a minister in Rajasthan. This development comes after President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignation of Banwarilal Purohit as the Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh.
Lakshman Prasad Acharya, who has been serving as the Governor of Sikkim, has been appointed as the Governor of Assam and will also take on the additional charge of Governor of Manipur. Acharya, a BJP leader and former MLC in Uttar Pradesh, will be succeeded in Sikkim by former Rajya Sabha MP Om Prakash Mathur.
Former Lok Sabha MP from Assam, Ramen Deka, has been appointed as the Governor of Chhattisgarh.
In Meghalaya, former Karnataka Minister C H Vijayashankar has been appointed as the Governor. Vijayashankar’s political career spans over three decades. He was with the BJP for the greater part of his political life and with the Congress for two years from 2017 to 2019 before returning to the BJP fold.
He suffered a defeat in the 2023 Assembly elections, when he was fielded as the BJP candidate from Periyapatana constituency in Mysore district.
Jharkhand Governor C P Radhakrishnan, who also held additional charge of Telangana, has been appointed as the new Governor of Maharashtra, succeeding Ramesh Bais. Radhakrishnan, a former Tamil Nadu BJP president, has twice been elected to the Lok Sabha from Coimbatore and is expected to be a crucial asset for the BJP in Maharashtra in the upcoming assembly elections.
Former Union Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar will take over as the new Governor of Jharkhand, replacing Radhakrishnan. Gangwar, an OBC from the Kurmi caste, was previously not given the ticket to contest from Bareilly in the recent Lok Sabha elections after winning the seat six consecutive times.
Former Deputy Chief Minister of Tripura, Jishnu Dev Varma, will be the new Governor of Telangana.
