Former Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla appointed Manipur Governor, Kerala Governor shifted to Bihar

Former Army chief Vijay Kumar Singh, a Minister in the last two terms of the Modi government, has been named the new Mizoram Governor

New Delhi: Former Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was on Tuesday appointed the Governor of strife-torn Manipur which has been witnessing periodic ethnic clashes between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo groups since May last year.

Former Army chief Vijay Kumar Singh, who was also a Minister in the last two terms of the Modi government, has been named the new Mizoram Governor while Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has been shifted to Bihar, where Assembly elections are due next year.
Vishwanath Arlekar has been named the new Governor of Kerala, according to the gubernatorial appointments to five States announced by the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday.

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Bhalla, who has the rare distinction of being the longest-serving union Home Secretary, completed his five-year tenure in August this year. He is a 1984-batch retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

President Droupadi Murmu appointed Bhalla as the Governor of Manipur, a statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said. Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya was holding the additional charge of Manipur. General (retd) Vijay Kumar Singh has been appointed Mizoram Governor. Singh retired as Army chief in 2012 after a long-drawn battle with the government over his age issue and joined the BJP ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election, which he successfully contested from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. He retained the Ghaziabad seat in 2019. Singh did not contest general elections this year.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has been appointed as Bihar Governor, the statement said. President Murmu has also accepted the resignation of Odisha Governor Raghubar Das. Mizoram Governor Hari Babu Kambhampati has been appointed as the new Odisha Governor in place of Das, the statement said.

These appointments will take effect from the dates they will assume charge of their respective offices, it added.