BS Koshyari's resignation proposal opens up another gubernatorial post

One more position of Governor may have opened up with the announcement by Maharashtra governor BS Koshyari that he wants to be relieved of his position and retire from politics to ‘do reading and writing’. Koshyari revealed in Mumbai on Monday that he had conveyed this to Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was in Mumbai for a brief stop last week.

Koshyari has served just about three years (he was appointed in 2019) of a normal five-year tenure of a Governor. However, those three years have been eventful and even till a few days ago, the opposition Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena was calling for his recall or resignation. Multiple points of friction emerged after the Maharashtra assembly elections when the then-united Sena contested the election in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but parted ways to do a deal with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Congress and others, leaving its electoral ally high and dry.

Koshyari dug in his heels on several occasions once Thackeray had become chief minister, even putting into cold storage citing Covid, elections to the Upper House in Maharashtra, keeping Thackeray hanging as he tried to become a Legislative Council MLA to stay chief minister in a six-month period. In May 2020, elections were finally held to the Maharashtra Legislative Council where Thackeray was elected unopposed. But it took two recommendations from the state cabinet (April 20 and 27, 2020) to Koshyari that Uddhav should be nominated to the Upper House. Finally, it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi, responding to a call from Uddhav personally, who persuaded the Governor to recommend to the ECI that the election be held.

Maharashtra will not be the only state that will have a vacancy. Meghalaya Governor Satyapal Singh Malik’s term came to an end in September last year and since October, Brig BD Mishra, the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, has been holding dual charge. His own tenure came to an end in October. Meghalaya will see a new government in March and possibly a new Governor will be appointed then.

The tenure of Governor of Assam and Sikkim has also come to an end. Assam Governor Jagdish Mukhi is holding additional charge of Nagaland, another poll-bound state that will have elections along with Meghalaya. The Sikkim Governor Ganga Prasad, was appointed in August 2018 but before that had first taken oath as Governor of Meghalaya in October 2017. He also held the additional charge of Governor of Manipur.

Telangana Governor, Tamilsai Soundararajan, is holding the additional charge of the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry since February 2021 when the incumbent Kiran Bedi was removed before the completion of her tenure. The tenure of Odisha Governor Ganeshi Lal will end in May this year.

Banwarlial Purohit, the present Governor of Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh, had first taken oath as Governor of Assam in August 2016. Since then, over a period of almost six years, he has served as the Governor of Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu. Same is the case with Acharya Devvrat, who first took the oath of Governor in August 2015 when he was appointed as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh. In July 2019, he was shifted to Gujarat in the same position.