H R Bharadwaj appointed Karnataka Governor

Former Law Minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj, who failed to make it to the Union Cabinet after the elections, was today appointed Governor of Karnataka.

The announcement of the 72-year-old Gandhi family loyalist was made in a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique which said incumbent Rameshwar Thakur has been transferred to Madhya Pradesh. He will hold the post till November.

Bhardwaj's omission in the second UPA government had come as a surprise as he had been a minister in Congress governments earlier.

His tenure in the previous Manmohan Singh government was marked by controversies over his handling of the Bofors case. The term of Balram Jakhar as Madhya Pradesh Governor comes to an end on June 30. Thakur was first appointed Governor on November 17, 2004. In 2006, he was shifted to Andhra Pradesh and later to Karnataka in 2007.

Former Assam Finance Minister Devanand Konwar, who was dropped from the Tarun Gogoi ministry last year, has been appointed Bihar Governor, the communique said. Konwar, 63, is a four-time MLA. He succeeds R L Bhatia whose tenure came to an end yesterday.

With Agency inputs