Ahead of Union Cabinet reshuffle, Centre appoints 8 new governors; Thawarchand Gehlot gets Karnataka, Bandaru Dattatreya Haryana

Thaawarchand Gehlot, who currently holds the portfolio of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, is one of the eight new governors appointed by President Ram Nath Kovind.

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New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday (July 6, 2021) appointed new Governors of eight states, an announcement that has come amid reports of the Union Cabinet reshuffle. Thaawarchand Gehlot, who currently holds the portfolio of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, was one of the eight new governors appointed by President Ram Nath Kovind.

The Union Cabinet expansion is most likely to happen this week and will be the first of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government's second term in office. 

The Governor of Mizoram PS Sreedharan Pillai has now been appointed as the Governor of Goa, whereas, the Governor of Haryana Satyadev Narayan Arya will now serve as Tripura Governor.

Ramesh Bais, Governor of Tripura, has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Jharkhand. Bandaru Dattatraya, Governor of Himachal Pradesh has been appointed as Governor of Haryana and Hari Babu Kambhampati will be Mizoram Governor.

President Kovind also appointed Mangubhai Chhaganbhai Patel and Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as Governors of Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh respectively.

Meanwhile, sources said that among those who are likely to be inducted in the new cabinet expansion are Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sarbananda Sonowal, Sushil Modi, Narayan Rane, Bhupendra Yadav and Pashupati Kumar Paras. 

It may also see a major representation from Uttar Pradesh, where assembly elections are scheduled in 2022 and apart from Apna Dal's Anupriya Patel, the names of Varun Gandhi, Ram Shankar Katheria, Anil Jain, Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Zafar Islam are likely to be considered for the ministerial posts.

Ajay Bhatt, Anil Baluni, Pratap Simha, Brijendra Singh, Poonam Mahajan, Pritam Munde, Parvesh Varma, Meenakshi Lekhi are the other names that are doing the rounds.