Four states get new governors, two shifted

Four new governors -- three of whom are Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Tathagata Roy for Tripura and Draupadi Murmu for Jharkhand – have been appointed by President Pranab Mukherjee.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique while announcing the appointments said V Shanmuganthan, a BJP leader and a former Sangh functionary, has been made the governor of Meghalaya and former Assam chief secretary J P Rakkhowa the governor of Arunachal Pradesh.

Two governors appointed during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance government were also shifted.

Lt Gen (retd) Nirbhay Sharma, who was serving as governor of Arunachal Pradesh since May 2013, has been transferred and appointed as governor of Mizoram for the remainder of his term which ends in 2018 in a continuing trend where Mizoram has seen frequent changes of governors in the last one year.

The communique said that Jharkhand Governor Syed Ahmed, who was appointed in September 2011, has been shifted to Manipur for remainder of his term that ends in September next year.

Roy, a senior BJP leader from West Bengal, is a member of BJP national executive.

He had unsuccessfully contested from Kolkata Dakshin Lok Sabha constituency in 2014.

Murmu, a BJP leader from Odisha, has been an active member of the party and contested many elections. She was an MLA from Rairangpur assembly constituency in the year 2000.

Rakkhowa is a 1968-batch IAS officer and has been actively involved in issues related to Northeast after his retirement.

Mizoram saw sacking of two Governors -- Kamla Beniwal, who was the Gujarat governor when Narendra Modi was chief minister, and Aziz Qureshi who has dragged the NDA government to court over the issue of sacking of governors.

The frequent changes in Mizoram governorship began when V Purushothaman resigned after being transferred to neighbouring Nagaland, saying he was not consulted.

Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan also refused to take over after being shifted to Mizoram.

Former Union Home Secretary V K Duggal also exited and after him former Delhi Police Commissioner K K Paul was given the additional charge of Mizoram along with Meghalaya till his transfer to Uttarakhand to replace Aziz Qureshi who was sacked on March 28.

West Bengal Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi was at present holding additional charge of Mizoram.