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Bandaru Dattatreya appointed 20th governor of Himachal Pradesh
A one-time pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Dattatreya got elected to the Lok Sabha from Secunderabad four times and served as minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi governments.
Shimla BJP senior leader Badaru Dattatreya was appointed as governor of Himachal Pradesh on Sunday.
Dattatreya, who belongs to Telangana, is the 20th full-time governor of the hill state, and 29th overall. The former Union minister comes in place of Kalraj Mishra who has been transferred to Rajasthan, replacing Kalyan Singh. Mishra, who was named the governor of HP on July 15, 2019, had the shortest stint as governor in the state.
A one-time pracharak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Dattatreya got elected to the Lok Sabha from Secunderabad four times and served as minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi governments.
Born on June 12, 1947, the down-to-earth leader is a science graduate. He joined the RSS in 1965 and worked as a pracharak till 1968. He also participated in the Jaiprakash Narayana movement serving as the state joint secretary of Lok Sangharsh Samiti and was jailed during the Emergency.
In 1980, he joined the newly formed BJP and held various positions, including general state general secretary before being appointed state party president of Andhra Pradesh in 1997. Dattatreya was elected to Lok Sabha for the first time in 1991. He got re-elected in 1998 and served as union minister of state for urban development in the Vajpayee-led NDA government. He retained Secunderabad seat in 1999 and was again made the minister of state holding portfolios of urban development and railways.
Dattatreya lost the 2004 and 2009 LS elections but bounced back by regaining his seat in 2014 to join the Modi government as minister of state (Independent charge) for labour and employment. He was the lone representative of the new state of Telangana. In 2016, he was charged for abetting the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula at Hyderabad University. He resigned from the Modi cabinet in September 2017. The BJP denied ticket to the veteran leader from Secunderabad this year, fielding G Kishan Reddy.
