New Delhi: Former Union Minister Arif Mohammad Khan along with three others were appointed Governors of four different states on Sunday, while Kalraj Mishra shifted to Rajasthan from Himachal Pradesh.
Khan has been appointed Governor of Kerala, Tamilisai Soundararajan of Telangana, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhagat Singh Koshyari of Maharashtra, and former Union Minister Bandaru Dattatraya of Himachal Pradesh.
Khan had extended support to the Centre’s move to triple . He will replace Justice Palanisamy Sathasivam.
In June, when the Triple Talaq Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted Khan in his speech in the Lower House while seeking Congress’ support.
Khan, who was a Union Minister during former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, had resigned after the then government decided to overturn the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Shah Bano by bringing legislation in Parliament. He left the Congress in 1986 over the Muslim Personal Law Bill and triple talaq legislation.
Soundarajan , the daughter of former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Kumari Ananthan, was also appointed the chief of the party’s BJP unit in 2014 following the resignation of Pon Radhakrishnan from the post.
She will replace ESL Narasimhan, who had assumed the office on June 2, 2014. She would be the first woman Governor to be appointed from Tamil Nadu.
A physician-turned-politician, Soundararajan entered politics in the year 1999. She started her political career as South Chennai District Medical Wing Secretary in the same year and held various positions in the BJP.
BJP leader Bandaru Dattatreya replaces Kalraj Mishra in Himachal Pradesh. While senior Mishra will replace Kalyan Singh from Rajasthan.
The 78-year-old Mishra had resigned from Narendra Modi’s government as Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in 2017 after he crossed the age of 75, the BJP’s unofficial age limit for holding an elected post.
Mishra remained a tall figure in Uttar Pradesh politics. He was Uttar Pradesh’s BJP unit chief, besides having been a Member of Parliament, both of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
Koshyari served as the national vice president of BJP and party’s first state president for Uttarakhand. He also served as the second Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2001 to 2002. Thereafter, he was the Leader of Opposition in Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly from 2002 to 2007. He has also served as a Member of Legislative Council (MLC) in Uttar Pradesh.
Member of Parliament (MP) in the Rajya Sabha from 2008 to 2014 from Uttarakhand. He got elected to the 16th Lok Sabha from Nainital-Udhamsingh Nagar constituency.