Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik becomes new Jammu and Kashmir Governor, replaces NN Vohra

New Delhi: Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik is set to become the new Jammu and Kashmir Governor as he has been transferred and will replace N N Vohra, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique on Tuesday. Vohra has been holding the position for more than 10 years.

Senior BJP leader Lal Ji Tandon has been appointed as the Governor of Bihar replacing Malik, while Satyadev Narayan Arya will be the new Governor of Haryana.

Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy has been transferred to Meghalaya, it said. Ganga Prasad, the Governor of Meghalaya, has been transferred to Sikkim, said the communique.

Baby Rani Maurya will be the new Governor of Uttarakhand, it said. Kaptan Singh Solanki, the Governor of Haryana, has been transferred to Tripura. 

Malik, who was appointed as the Bihar governor in September last year, will take charge of Jammu and Kashmir at a time when it is under governor's rule. The seventy-two-year-old will be the first career politician to be appointed as governor of the restive state after Karan Singh, who held the post from 1965 to 1967. Before this, Singh was Sadar-e-Riyasat after the state was annexed with Indian union.

Malik had served as the Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism and held many important positions in central and Uttar Pradesh state governments. He was also a Rajya Sabha MP for two terms and a Lok Sabha MP from 1989 to 1990. Malik was also a Member of Uttar Pradesh Assembly from 1974 to 1977. In his political career, he has also been the Chairman and member of many parliamentary committees.

His appointment ends the over 10-year tenure of Vohra, who took over the reins of the state on June 25, 2008, at a difficult time when Jammu and Kashmir was facing the Amarnath agitation.

The militancy-hit state is at present under the Governor's rule after the BJP withdrew support from its alliance partner PDP in June this year. Malik, who has been associated with Bhartiya Kranti Dal, Lok Dal, Congress and Janata Dal and the BJP during his political career, will be heading the administration of the state.

Eighty-three-year-old Tandon, BJP stalwart and a confidant of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, was a key negotiator when the BJP formed a government with Mayawati. He had to face criticism in the infamous sari distribution tragedy in 2004 that claimed lives of 21 women and a child. 

with PTI inputs