Ahead of cabinet reshuffle, Thawarchand Gehlot appointed as Karnataka Governor, Sreedharan Pillai as Goa Governor

As a precursor to the Cabinet reshuffle expected later this week, the government Tuesday transferred or appointed governors of eight states. One of the major changes included the appointment of Union Minister Thawarchand Gehlot as the Governor of Karnataka.

Gehlot, who served as the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, had also been the Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha since 2019. His appointment as Governor has left three vacancies—in the cabinet, Rajya Sabha, and the BJP parliamentary board, the apex decision-making body of the party. The Union Government will have to find Gehlot’s replacement in the Upper House with the monsoon session of Parliament commencing on July 19.

Apart from Gehlot, President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed three new governors.

Hari Babu Kambhampati, the former Lok Sabha member from Vishakhapatnam, who is also a member of BJP’s national executive, has been appointed as the Governor of Mizoram. BJP leader from Gujarat, Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel, has become the Governor of Madhya Pradesh. Former Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly, BJP’s Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, will take over as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

The previous governors of these states have been moved to other Raj Bhavans. PS Sreedharan Pillai has been transferred from Mizoram to Goa. Satyadev Narayan Arya will move from Haryana to Tripura.

Tripura’s current Governor Ramesh Bais will move to the Raj Bhavan in Jharkhand. Senior RSS leader Bandaru Dattatraya, who was serving as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh, is transferred and appointed as Governor of Haryana.

The President’s communication mentioned that these appointments “will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices”.

As reported by The Indian Express on Tuesday morning, a cabinet expansion and reshuffle is expected this week. Two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came back to power in May 2019, the upcoming reshuffle has generated a lot of speculation.

In June, Modi had initiated performance assessments of some of the key ministries and had met a series of senior ministers and party leaders, and some of these meetings were attended by BJP national president JP Nadda as well.