edited by: Pritha Mallick
Last Update: January 27, 2023, 17:10 IST
Amarinder Singh, scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family, joined the BJP in 2022 and merged his Punjab Lok Congress with it. (Image: News18)
The Bharatiya Janata Party had appointed former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh as a member of its national executive in December last year.
Former Punjab chief minister and BJP leader Amarinder Singh is likely to be appointed as the new governor of Maharashtra, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The development comes days after Governor BS Koshyari expressed his desire to step down.
Koshyari, who had faced major controversy and calls for his resignation by opposition parties in Maharashtra, made a surprise announcement on Monday and said that he had expressed his willingness to discharge his duties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“During the recent visit of the Honorable Prime Minister to Mumbai, I have conveyed to him my desire to be relieved of all political responsibilities and to spend the rest of my life in reading, writing and other activities. I have always received 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, former Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, was appointed as the Governor of Maharashtra in September 2019. Addressing a function at the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad, his remarks terming Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj as an “outdated icon” sparked a controversy.
Meanwhile, Singh had quit the Congress after being dropped as Punjab chief minister in 2021 following a bitter power battle with Navjot Singh Sidhu. Amarinder Singh later formed his own party, the Punjab Lok Congress, but the party failed to win a single seat in the state assembly elections held in February last year. Singh himself lost from his home turf of Patiala Urban as the Aam Aadmi Party registered a landslide victory.
Months later, the former two-time chief minister of Punjab and a scion of the erstwhile Patiala royal family joined the BJP and merged his Punjab Lok Congress, saying it was time for him to move to the party’s “same ideology” in commitment. Has come towards India’s interests and security.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had also appointed Amarinder Singh as a member of its national executive in December last year.
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