New Delhi, Oct 12 President Droupadi Murmu on Monday appointed six governors, moving Keralam Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar to Tamil Nadu and Sikkim Governor Om Prakash Mathur to Keralam.
Arlekar, who was sworn in as Keralam Governor on January 2, 2025, had been holding the additional charge of Tamil Nadu since March 12 this year.
Sikkim Governor Mathur will be the new Governor of Keralam, in place of Arlekar, a communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said. Mathur was appointed Sikkim Governor on July 27, 2024.
Besides them, the President has approved appointments of four new governors.
Senior BJP leaders Dushyant Gautam, Sudha Yadav, Dhal Singh Bisen and Braj Mohan Ram have been appointed governors of Sikkim, Karnataka, Uttarakhand and Odisha, respectively.
All these appointments will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices, the communique said.
These four new governors are veteran BJP leaders from Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Scheduled Caste (SC), having decades of grassroots, electoral and legislative experience from across the heartland states of the country.
They are senior “BJP karyakartas”, having served in various capacities in the party for over 25 to 45 years.
Gautam, a Dalit leader hailing from Delhi, has been appointed as the new Sikkim Governor in place of Mathur.
He has devoted almost five decades to organisational work in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)/BJP and towards further upliftment of Scheduled Castes.
Gautam has served as BJP national general secretary and national president of BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha. He has risen up the ladder from being a councillor in Municipal Corporation of Delhi to being elected to the Rajya Sabha.
His appointment as governor would honour grassroots leadership of the BJP and recognise a dedicated Dalit leader’s contribution to national public life, sources said.
Yadav, the new Governor of Karnataka, is an OBC leader belonging to Yadav community from Haryana.
She succeeds Thaawarchand Gehlot, a former Union minister who had been Karnataka Governor since July 11, 2021.
The widow of BSF Deputy Commandant Sukhbir Singh Yadav martyred in the Kargil War, Yadav went on to represent Mahendragarh constituency in the Lok Sabha and serves on the BJP Parliamentary Board, the sources said.
She is the second woman to hold the position after late Sushma Swaraj.
Yadav, who possess an MSc and PhD in chemistry from IIT Roorkee, was also a member of National Commission for Backward Classes from 2019 to 2022.
Her appointment honours Haryana’s tradition of national service, OBC community and the sacrifice of families of fallen personnel, the sources said.
Bisen, an OBC leader (Bhoyar Pawar) from Madhya Pradesh, has been appointed as the new Governor of Uttarakhand.
He brings decades of legislative and administrative experience.
A four-time MLA and former Balaghat MP, Bisen has served as a state Cabinet minister having handled important portfolios including school education, forest, transport and mines.
An Ayurveda practitioner by profession, he holds a deep interest in Indian systems of medicine and its convergence with modern medicine, the sources said.
His appointment would honour five-decades-long service in the BJP and recognise his long record of public service, they said.
Bisen succeeds Lt General Gurmit Singh, who assumed the office on September 15, 2021.
Senior BJP leader from Jharkhand, Braj Mohan Ram, has been appointed as the Governor of Odisha.
Dalit leader Ram (68), a former Lok Sabha member from Jharkhand’s Palamu constituency, will succeed Hari Babu Kambhampati.
Coming from a farming family, he rose to serve as an MLA in undivided Bihar and a three-time Palamu MP, elected in 1996, 1998 and 1999.
His service includes being in-charge of State Scheduled Caste Morcha and Dhobi Mahasangh, alongside efforts to establish educational institutions in Chandwa (Jharkhand).
Ram’s appointment as Odisha Governor would honour grassroots Dalit leader from Jharkhand and recognise his decades of legislative and social service, the sources said.
(PTI News)
