Former Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla has been appointed the new Governor of Manipur in the latest gubernatorial appointments and reshuffle by President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday across five States.
The other key appointment is that of former Union Minister General V. K. Singh (Retd.) being made the new Governor of Mizoram, while Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has been moved to Bihar.
The President has also accepted the resignation of Odisha Governor Raghubar Das. The incumbent Governor of Mizoram, Dr. Hari Babu Kambhampati, replaces Mr. Das.
The appointment to the Manipur Raj Bhavan is significant as the State has witnessed ethnic strife resulting in violence between the Meitei community and Kuki tribes since May 2023. Anusuiya Uikey was the last full-time Governor of the State and since July this year, Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya was holding additional charge.
Mr. Bhalla is among the only two longest-serving Union Home Secretaries who remained in office for more than five years. Said to be close to Home Minister Amit Shah, he steered some of the key legislations such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the three new criminal laws during his tenure as the Home Secretary. A 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre, Mr. Bhalla retired on August 22, 2024. He has first-hand knowledge of the current security situation in the State as he was in office when ethnic violence erupted. Violence in the Northeastern State has claimed more than 250 lives so far.
The swap of Governors in Kerala is another politically significant move. Mr. Khan had been having regular run-ins with the Left Front government in the State. So, while he has been shifted to Bihar, the incumbent Bihar Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has been named the new Governor of Kerala.
A former chief of the Indian Army, Gen. Singh successfully contested the Lok Sabha election twice, in 2014 and in 2019, from the Ghaziabad seat in Uttar Pradesh on a BJP ticket and was part of the Union Council of Ministers. The party, however, did not offer him a ticket in the 2024 election.
