Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday resigned as Punjab Governor citing “personal reasons”. He had been holding the office since August 2021.
The resignation comes a day after Purohit met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi on Friday.
“Due to my personal reasons and certain other commitments, I tender my resignation from the post of the Governor of Punjab and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh. Please accept the same and oblige,” Purohit wrote in his resignation letter to President Droupadi Murmu.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Home Affairs posted Rajeev Verma, an AGMUT cadre officer, as the Union Territory Adviser. The post had fallen vacant last year.
Purohit, a three-time MP (twice from the Congress and once from the BJP) from Nagpur had served as the governor of Tamil Nadu in 2016 and was appointed Assam governor in 2017.
He had been engaged in a war of words for long with the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab, shooting off a series of letters to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann seeking clarifications on several issues and even warning that he would recommend President’s rule in the state and launch criminal proceedings if his queries were not answered by Mann.
Incidentally, the resignation comes after the Chandigarh mayoral polls in which the AAP raised allegations of rigging and moved the Supreme Court to seek an early decision on its plea. The party moved the apex court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court asked Chandigarh to submit its response in three weeks over a plea filed by AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar who was in the fray and challenged the win of the BJP’s Manoj Sonkar.
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First uploaded on: 03-02-2024 at 14:51 IST
Aisha Patel is a dedicated Indian correspondent with a deep understanding of the nation’s diverse affairs. With a background in Indian culture, politics, and current events, she provides in-depth analysis and timely reporting on domestic issues within India.
