Highlights:
- President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed new governors in eight states in a major reshuffling.
- Thaawarchand Gehlot, who currently heads the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been appointed as Governor of Karnataka.
- Bandaru Dattatraya has been named the Governor of Haryana.
The government on Tuesday transferred or appointed governors of eight states as a precursor to the Cabinet reshuffle scheduled later this week. The appointment of Union Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot as Governor of Karnataka was one of the major changes.
The Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot, has also served as the Rajya Sabha’s Leader of the House since 2019. His nomination as Governor has created three vacancies: in the cabinet, the Rajya Sabha, and the BJP parliamentary board, which is the party’s highest decision-making body. With the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning on July 19, the Union Government will have to find Gehlot’s replacement in the Upper House.
In addition to Gehlot, President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed three new governors. Hari Babu Kambhampati, a former member of the Lok Sabha from Vishakhpatnam and a member of the BJP’s National Executive, has been named Governor of Mizoram.
Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel, a Gujarat BJP leader, has been named Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, the BJP’s former Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, will take over as Governor of Himachal Pradesh.
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These states’ previous governors have been relocated to different Raj Bhavans. PS Sreedharan Pillai has been assigned to Goa from Mizoram. Satyadev Narayan Arya will move to Tripura from Haryana.
Ramesh Bais, the present Governor of Tripura, will shift to Jharkhand’s Raj Bhavan. Bandaru Dattatraya, a senior RSS leader and the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, has been transferred and appointed as the Governor of Haryana.
According to the President’s statement, these nominations “will take effect from the dates they take command of their respective offices.”
A cabinet expansion and reshufflings are expected to take place this week. Two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi returned to power in May 2019, the upcoming reshuffle has sparked a lot of curiosity. Modi began permeance assessments of some important ministries in June and met with a number of senior ministers and party leaders, including BJP national president JP Nadda, at some of these meetings.
