President of India Ram Nath Kovind has done some reshuffling in seven states by appointing new governors on Tuesday, reported FirstPost. These states are Bihar, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Sikkim, Meghalaya, and Tripura.
Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik will be taking over the Governor office of Jammu and Kashmir from NN Vohra. Malik is replaced by senior BJP veteran Lalji Tandon as the Governor of Bihar.
After his appointment, Tandon told ANI, “I’ll try to contribute to the development of Bihar. I’ll play the role of a guardian to the state government. (Bihar chief minister) Nitish is an old friend of mine”, reported TimesNow.
Satyadev Narayan Arya has been appointed as the new Governor of Haryana. He will be replacing Kaptan Singh Solanki, who is assigned to the Governor office of Tripura.
Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy has been transferred to Meghalaya. Roy will be replacing Ganga Prasad as the new governor of Meghalaya. While Ganga Prasad has been transferred to Sikkim as the new governor.
According to the Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, Baby Rani Maurya will be the new Governor of Uttarakhand.
A brief introduction of the newly appointed Governors:
Bihar– Lalji Tandon
Tandon, 83, had a close relationship with late former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Tandon has played a major role in Lucknow politics and has been a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, reported Firstpost.
Tandon has been a part of the UP Vidhan Parishad twice from 1978-1984. He was elected as the MLA from Lucknow West from 1996 to 2009.
Jammu and Kashmir– Satya Pal Malik
Malik,71, will be the first politician to be appointed as the Governor of J&K in 51 years. Earlier the post has been assumed by ex-bureaucrats like IPS, IAS officers, Army Generals etc. Malik started his career as a ‘socialist political leader’, hopped from one party to another, became the vice president of BJP, was appointed as the Governor of Bihar last year, reported FirstPost.
Malik served as a member of Rajya Sabha for the Congress party from 1980 till 1984, he resigned after Bofors scam came into limelight. He then joined V P Singh-led Janta Dal in 1988 and became an MP in 1989 from the party’s Aligarh ticket. He served as the Union minister of state, parliamentary affairs and tourism in 1990 for a brief period, Firstpost reported.
In 2004, Malik joined BJP. He was in charge of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha before becoming the Bihar Governor in 2017.
Meghalaya– Tathagata Roy
Roy,72, believes in a pro-Hindutva ideology and is infamous for his controversial remarks. He served as the West Bengal BJP’s president from 2002 to 2006. He lost Lok Sabha elections twice from BJP’s tickets, reported FirstPost.
According to The Week, before entering the politics in 1990, Roy was a part of the Calcutta Metro railway project and had designed the Calcutta Metro.
Some of his controversies include suggesting that the terrorists killed in the Pathankot, their bodies should be wrapped in pigskin. He “was the first in the BJP to come in support of Modi” after the Gujarat riots in 2002, FirstPost reported.
Sikkim– Ganga Prasad
Prasad was a part of the Bihar Vidhan Parishad, the Upper House for 18 years. He was also a former leader of Opposition in the Bihar Legislative Assembly.
He started his career as a Jan Sangh member in 1967. He has held many posts in Jan Sangh as well as BJP, Firstpost reported.
Uttarakhand–Baby Rani Maurya
The only woman governor in the list of new appointments, Maurya, 61, is a BJP leader from the Agra district of Uttar Pradesh. As per DNA report, she has also served as the mayor of Agra.
Haryana–Satyadev Narayan Arya
Arya,73, was a minister in the BJP-JDU coalition government in 2010 in Bihar. He has been elected as the MLA of Bihar eight times, reported FirstPost.
Tripura –Kaptan Singh Solanki
Solanki,78, is a former Rajya Sabha MP from Madhya Pradesh who was elected to the Upper House in August 2009. He is a BJP leader.