New delhi : 12 February 2023 : Ramesh Bais who served as the Governor of Jharkhand until Sunday’s major gubernatorial reshuffle will be the new governor of Maharashtra as President Droupadi Murmu accepted the resignation of Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Koshyari’s exit comes following a recent controversy over his comment on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, though his term was no less acrimonious until Uddhav Thackeray was at the helm. In January, Koshyari, 81, expressed his desire to resign from the post and devote time to reading and writing.
“It was an absolute honour and privilege for me to serve as the Rajya Sevak or Rajyapal of a great state like Maharashtra – the land of saints, social reformers and valiant fighters,” Koshyari said in a statement issued earlier.
As Koshyari offered to step down, there was speculation over who will fill the crucial post in a state that went from the Maha Vikas Aghadi government to the BJP with a faction of Shiv Sena led by Eknath Shinde joining hands with the BJP. Former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh’s name was doing the rounds though he confirmed that those were just speculations.
The BJP was cornered over BS Koshyari’s ‘old icon’ comment in which he said: “Earlier, when you would be asked who is your icon — Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, and Mahatma Gandhi used to be the answers. Whereas in Maharashtra, you need not look elsewhere (as) there are so many icons here… while Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj is of olden times, there are icons such as Ambedkar and Nitin Gadkari in modern times.” Drawing flak for ‘insulting’ Shivaji Maharaj, Koshyari said he could not even dream of insulting icons like Chhatrapati Shivaji and that his comment was taken out of context.
Ramesh Bais was serving as the Governor of Jharkhand before the massive reshuffle order.
Ramesh Bais also served as the Governor of Tripura from 2019 to 2021.
He served in the cabinet of Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the union minister of state for environment and forests.
The Madhya Pradesh politician began his political career in civic elections.
Ramesh Bais was elected for the first time to Parliament from Raipur in 1989.
Lt. General Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik, PVSM, UYSM, YSM (Retired) has been appointed as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh while Lakshman Prasad Acharya will be the Governor of Sikkim.
CP Radhakrishnan will be the Governor of Jharkhand and Shiv Pratap Shukla will be the Governor of Himachal Pradesh.
Gulab Chand Kataria has been appointed as Governor of Assam and Justice (Retd.) S. Abdul Nazeer as Governor of Andhra Pradesh, while Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, the current Governor of Andhra Pradesh has been sent to Chhattisgarh.
Anusuiya Uikye, who is the Governor of Chhattisgarh will now be Manipur governor, while La. Ganesan, Governor of Manipur has been appointed as Governor of Nagaland and Phagu Chauhan, Governor of Bihar appointed as Governor of Meghalaya.
Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Governor of Himachal Pradesh has been appointed as Governor of Bihar. @HT
