New Delhi: The President of India appointed Jagdeep Dhankhar, a senior advocate of the Supreme Court, as the Governor of West Bengal on Saturday. Dhankar will replace the Keshari Nath Tripathi who served as the Bengal Governor for five years since 2014.
"The above appointments will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices," said a communique from the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Governor Tripathi’s tenure in the state of West Bengal will come to an end on July.
Dhankar was formerly a Janata Dal MP from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan during 1989-91 and a Minister in the Central government. Later, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2003.
The newly-appointed Governor was also a former MLA from Rajasthan’s Kishangarh. Dhankar, the former President of Rajasthan High Court Bar Association, Jaipur, is also a member of ICC International Court of Arbitration.
Apart from West Bengal, the President appointed new Governors for Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Nagaland, West Bengal and Tripura states. Meanwhile, Anandiben Patel is transferred from Madhya Pradesh and appointed as Governor of Uttar Pradesh.
Dhankar’s appointment comes at a time when the TMC-led ruling government is wrestling with the BJP over the infamous cut money issue. While Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee grapples with the saffron party’s soaring influence in the state, her perpetual tiff with incumbent Governor Tripathi is stale news.
The outgoing Governor, on multiple occasions, was at loggerheads with Banerjee and the relationship between the Raj Bhavan and Nabanna reached a stalemate especially during the recent Doctors' strike in Kolkata.
Even when poll violence spiraled out across Bengal, Banerjee accused Tripathi of “exaggerating” the figures of the death toll. She had accused the Governor of giving “wrong” information to Union Home Minister Amit Shah about the number of deaths since the Lok Sabha election came to an end.
Earlier, in 2017, the Bengal CM had alleged that the Governor had “threatened” and “insulted” her over the phone, and spoken like “a BJP block president”.
Constitutionally the role of the Governor is to act as the connecting link between the Centre and the states.
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