Former Punjab chief minister and BJP leader Amarinder Singh is likely to be appointed the new Governor of Maharashtra, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The development came days after Governor B S Koshyari expressed his desire to leave office.
Koshyari, who had faced major controversy and calls by the Opposition parties in Maharashtra to resign, made a surprise announcement on Monday and said he had conveyed his desire to be discharged of his duties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“During the recent visit of the Hon’ble Prime Minister to Mumbai, I have conveyed to him my desire to be discharged of all political responsibilities and to spend the remainder of my life in reading, writing and other activities. I have always received the love and affection from the Hon’ble Prime Minister and I hope to receive the same in this regard,” the Raj Bhavan said in a tweet.
Koshyari, a former chief minister of Uttarakhand, was appointed the governor of Maharashtra in September 2019. His remark calling termed Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj an “old icon” while addressing a function at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad sparked controversy.
Meanwhile, Singh, had quit the Congress after he was unceremoniously removed as Punjab chief minister in 2021 following a bitter power tussle with Navjot Singh Sidhu. Amarinder Singh later floated his own party, the ‘Punjab Lok Congress’ but the party failed to win any seat in the state assembly polls held in February last year. Singh himself lost from his home turf of Patiala Urban as the Aam Aadmi Party scored a landslide victory.
Months later, the two-time former chief minister of Punjab and a scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family joined the BJP and merged his Punjab Lok Congress with it, saying it was time for him to go to the party “same ideologies” in commitment towards India’s interests and security.
The Bharatiya Janata Party also appointed Amarinder Singh as a member of its national executive in December last year.
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