New Delhi: Several states, including poll-bound West Bengal got new Governors on Thursday. While R N Ravi, who was in charge on Tamil Nadu, took over as Governor of West Bengal after the resignation of C V Ananda Bose, Lt Gen Syed Ata Hasnain (retd) was named the new Bihar Governor, taking over from Arif Mohammed Khan.
Tamil Nadu, meanwhile, will be administered by Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar for the time being.
Delhi also witnessed a change with former diplomat and ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu taking over as Lt Governor. He replaced Vinai Kumar Saxena, who was moved to Ladakh as Lt Governor, as reported by The Indian Express.
Ladakh Lt Governor Kavinder Gupta, will be the new Governor of Himachal Pradesh. Shiv Pratap Shukla, who was Governor of Himachal has been moved to Telangana. He will take over from Jishnu Dev Varma who was appointed Governor of Maharashtra, according to a communique from Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Nand Kishore Yadav, former Speaker of Bihar Assembly, w
as appointed Governor of Nagaland which had so far been functioning under the additional charge of Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla.
Meanwhile, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, criticised this sudden move to shift Governors.
“I am shocked and deeply concerned by the sudden news of the resignation of Shri C V Ananda Bose, the Governor of West Bengal. The reasons behind his resignation are not known to me at this moment. However, given the prevailing circumstances, I would not be surprised if the Governor has been subjected to some pressure from the Union Home Minister to serve certain political interests on the eve of the forthcoming State Assembly elections. The Union Home Minister just informed me that Shri R N Ravi is being appointed as Governor of West Bengal. He never consulted me as per the established convention in this regard,” she posted on X.
“Such actions undermine the spirit of the Constitution of India and strike at the very foundation of our federal structure. The Centre must respect the principles of cooperative federalism and refrain from taking unilateral decisions that erode democratic conventions and the dignity of states,” Mamata added.
Bose will continue to remain Governor of West Bengal till Ravi takes oath. He is likely to take part in official proceedings related to the visit of President Droupadi Murmu, who reaches the state for a two-day visit on Friday.