A set of gubernatorial assignments announced by Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday, appointing six new governors and shuffling seven others, holds important clues. Focus will be on the new governor of Assam, Gulab Chand Kataria, the current leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly. The latter, which has a tradition of voting out the incumbent every five years, goes to the polls in December — and will be in the last round of assembly polls before the 2024 general elections.
A set of gubernatorial assignments announced by Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday, appointing six new governors and shuffling seven others, holds important clues. Focus will be on the new governor of Assam, Gulab Chand Kataria, the current leader of the Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly. The latter, which has a tradition of voting out the incumbent every five years, goes to the polls in December — and will be in the last round of assembly polls before the 2024 general elections. Mr Kataria’s appointment may be seen as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s first move to overhaul the state unit, which needs to resolve its internal factionalism, but it remains to be seen whether the party decides to implement its Gujarat election strategy of nudging older leaders to retire while dropping a chunk of sitting legislators. Mr Kataria was considered a rival of former chief minister (CM) Vasundhara Raje, who may make a play for leadership in the months leading to the state polls, alongside another potential CM aspirant, state unit chief Satish Poonia. The election of the next leader of the Opposition in the assembly is likely to show which way the wind is blowing in Rajasthan.
Among the governors moving states, Ramesh Bais’s appointment as governor of Maharashtra will also grab headlines. This marks the end of the tenure of Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who had multiple run-ins with the former Maha Vikas Aghadi government but who appeared to have been done in by his controversial comments on Chhatrapati Shivaji. The resignation of a sitting governor amid controversy is not common, and the government appears to have been unwilling to hand over an emotive campaign issue to the Opposition. In moving from Ranchi to Mumbai, Mr Bais leaves unresolved another simmering row of the Election Commission’s recommendation on the demands of disqualification of CM Hemant Soren over a mining contract. Former BJP MP CP Radhakrishnan, who takes charge in Jharkhand, should consider resolving this issue expeditiously. Other significant appointments include former Supreme Court judge S Abdul Nazeer in Andhra Pradesh and BD Mishra as the lieutenant governor in Ladakh at a time the Raj Bhavan is battling civil society protests in the new Union Territory. Nagaland and Meghalaya, which go to the polls this month, have also got new governors.
The rejig marks the beginning of a long electoral season, which will see at least nine assembly elections in 2023. It also comes at a time of friction between some state governments and governors. Politics is important, but so is governance. It will be important to ensure that as the electoral heat rises, the latter doesn’t recede into the background.
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