Agartala: Amidst controversy over his Hindutva ideology, BJP leader Tathagata Roy took charge as the 16th governor of Left-ruled Tripura on Wednesday.
The 70-year-old civil-engineer-turned-politician was sworn-in by Tripura High Court Chief Justice Deepak Gupta at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan here.
Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, his cabinet colleagues, leaders of various political parties and Army and police officials were present during the ceremony.
Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya had been holding the gubernatorial posts of Tripura along with Assam.
Roy was a member of Bharatiya Jatana Party (BJP) national executive and president of party's West Bengal unit from 2002 to 2006 and contested the Lok Sabha elections in the last year's parliamentary polls in Bengal.
He was in Jadavpur University in Kolkata as professor and founder head of the department of construction engineering after he played a key role in construction of metro rail in Kolkata as its chief engineer.
After the President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Roy as the new governor of Tripura on May 12, state's ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) threatened to launch a mass movement if Roy crossed his constitutional limit.
"We welcome (Tathagata) Roy as governor of Tripura. Like the previous Congress government, the BJP-led NDA (National democratic Alliance) government at the Centre is appointing their leaders as governors of various states," CPI-M Tripura state secretary Bijan Dhar had told reporters.
"If the new governor crosses his constitutional limit, the CPI-M would launch a mass movement against him," Dhar had said.
Dhar, also a CPI-M central committee member, said : "We believe that Roy as the governor of Tripura would cooperate with the Left Front government and discharge his constitutional duties."
On May 17 in New Delhi, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury expressed concerns about alleged pro-Hindutva comments made by Roy and his comments on Gujarat riot.
The new governor, however, refused to give any reactions on the views of the CPI-M leaders.
"I have no reaction on these comments. I have no comments on these issues," Roy told IANS.
