Major reshuffle in Raj Bhavans: Ex-envoy Sandhu named Delhi LG, Tamil Nadu Governor Ravi moved to Bengal

NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Tamil Nadu governor R N Ravi has replaced C V Ananda Bose as the new governor of West Bengal, while former ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu will be the new L-G of Delhi as part of a larger gubernatorial reshuffle. The move to appoint Ravi as Bengal governor immediately came under fire from the CM of the poll-bound state, Mamata Banerjee.

The appointment of Ravi, a former IPS officer who had frequent run-ins with the DMK govt, comes days ahead of the announcement of poll dates for Bengal and other states.




As part of the changes announced by Rashtrapati Bhavan, Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, the governor of Kerala, has been given additional charge of TN, while Lt General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd), a well-known security expert, has substituted Arif Mohammad Khan as governor of Bihar, and Jishnu Dev Varma, governor of Telangana, has been appointed as Maharashtra governor.

Other changes include UT of Ladakh L-G Kavinder Gupta being elevated to governor of Himachal Pradesh in place of Shiv Pratap Shukla, who has been shifted to Telangana. Current Delhi L-G Vinai Kumar Saxena has been moved to Ladakh as the new L-G. BJP politician and former Bihar Speaker Nand Kishore Yadav is the new Nagaland governor.

Bose, whose tenure was marked by his repeated confrontations with the Mamata-led TMC govt, announced his resignation from Delhi.

Didi: Shah didn’t consult me over change of guard

Mamata said Shah did not consult her over the change of guard “as per established convention”. Ravi has been at odds with the Tamil Nadu govt over a host of issues and his expected transfer to Bengal assumes significance due to Mamata’s vehement protest against the EC’s SIR exercise in the state with polls set to be conducted with the new voters’ list.

The suddenness of Ananda Bose’s decision was borne out by the fact that a Raj Bhavan social media channel posted his key official engagements on Friday till a few hours before he made the announcement. The engagements included his “presence” at the “first-of-its-kind” Darjeeling Hill Festival, where President Droupadi Murmu would be the chief guest.

The election-eve choice of Ravi as Bengal’s 24th governor also prompted the CM to claim that “such actions undermine the spirit of the Constitution of India and strike at the very foundation of our federal structure”. Ravi, known for his confrontations with the Stalin administration, will be stepping into Raj Bhavan just ahead of the assembly election.

Bose, as many noted, had been lying low, uncharacteristically, for the last few months, avoiding any fresh tussle with the Bengal government. Bengal BJP president Samik Bhattacharya said, “They (TMC) should stop whining on ethics and morality in a state where the assembly opposition leader has to move the high court 124 times just to hold public meetings.”

Raj Bhavan insiders gave a couple of “reasons” for Bose’s decision: ill health and frustration over not being allowed to work by the state administration. It was also becoming increasingly clear in Bengal’s political circles that Bose’s recent non-confrontational approach was not entirely to the liking of the local BJP brass.

“He was stymied not by the state administration but by his own actions and inaction,” a BJP senior told TOI.
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