Former Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was on Tuesday evening appointed the new Governor of Manipur – where periodic clashes between the Meitei community and the Kuki tribes have simmered for more than a year – replacing Anusuiya Uikey.
The President also appointed Governors for four other states.
VK Singh, a retired Army Chief and a former minister in the previous Narendra Modi-led government, has been appointed the new Mizoram Governor.
There has been a swap of states for Governors of Kerala and Bihar – Arif Mohammed, the Kerala Governor, is now the Governor of Bihar, and Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Governor of Bihar, is now in charge of Kerala.
The President has accepted the resignation of Raghubar Das as the Governor of Odisha. Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati, Governor of Mizoram, has been appointed as the Governor of Odisha in his place.
A governor is the constitutional head of a state and has similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the President of India at the central level.
Experienced Campaigner
Ajay Kumar Bhalla, now Manipur Governor, is a 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre who was appointed the Union Home Secretary in August 2019 and remained in the post for nearly half a decade, until 2024. Experts said his tenure at the Home Ministry will serve him well in his new posting in a state that is going through a volatile period.
Governor-Kerala Government Row
For the second year in a row, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his council of ministers skipped the Christmas celebrations hosted by Governor Arif Mohammed Khan last Tuesday, said sources.
The Governor, who now moves to Bihar, has been at loggerheads with the ruling CPI(M) and its student wing SFI over appointments made by him to some universities of the state in his capacity as Chancellor of universities.
His recent appointment of vice-chancellors to technical and digital universities in the state had invited sharp criticism from the CPI(M) which alleged that the Governor bypassed the High Court’s directive in making these appointments.
Army Chief To Governor
Gen (Retd) VK Singh, a former Minister of State for Civil Aviation and also for Road Transport and Highways, represented Ghaziabad constituency for two terms since 2014. Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the former minister said he has “made a difficult but thoughtful decision” and will not contest the polls. “I want to take my energy and time in new directions, where I can serve my country in a different way,” he had said in March.