President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday appointed former diplomat and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. The development comes after incumbent Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena was made the Lieutenant Governor of the union territory (UT) of Ladakh.
Kavinder Gupta, who was serving as the Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, has been made the Governor of Himachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekha, who is the Governor of Kerala, has been given the additional charge of Tamil Nadu. He will replace RN Ravi, who has been made the Governor of West Bengal. This move was necessitated after West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose resigned from his position.
"Yes, I have resigned. I have been the Governor of Bengal for three-and-a-half years; it's enough for me," Bose told news agency PTI. However, he did not disclose why he resigned from his position.
Row over Bose's resignation
His resignation, however, has caused a massive row in West Bengal, where assembly elections are slated to be held in April or May this year, along with those in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said she is "shocked and deeply concerned" over Bose's resignation.
In a long post on X (formerly twitter), the chief minister alleged that Bose was forced to resign from his position due to pressure from Union Home Minister Amit Shah "to serve certain political interests". She even claimed that she was not consulted over RN Ravi's appointed as West Bengal Governor.
"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," Banerjee said.
Bihar gets new Governor
Meanwhile, Bihar on Thursday also received a new governor, with Lieutenant General (retired) Syed Ata Hasnain being appointed to that post. Interestingly, his appointment came on a day when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar filed his nomination for Rajya Sabha elections from the state in presence of Shah, and top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal (United).
Meanwhile, Nand Kishore has been made the Governor of Nagaland and Jishnu Dev Varma will be the new Governor of Maharashtra. Shiv Pratap Shukla, who was the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, has been moved to Telangana.
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