Santosh Kumar Gangwar sworn in as Jharkhand Governor

    Ranchi, Jul 31 (PTI) Former Union minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar was on Wednesday sworn in as the 12th governor of Jharkhand.
    Gangwar, 76, succeeded C P Radhakrishnan, who was appointed as the governor of Maharashtra.
    Acting Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Sujit Narayan Prasad administered the oath of office to Gangwar.
    Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Chief Secretary L Khiangte, other ministers and several dignitaries were present at the oath-taking ceremony here.
    Gangwar expressed gratitude to the prime minister and the central government for his appointment as the governor of Jharkhand, and said he was delighted to be in the land of tribal icon Birsa Munda.
    "This state will establish a unique identity in the country and create its own yardsticks of development with the rich resources. I am confident Jharkhand will progress under the leadership of Hemant Soren," he told reporters.
    Gangwar, an eight-time BJP MP from the Bareilly Lok Sabha seat, has been a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi-led governments.
    While he was not given a ticket by the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had said that he would be given a new assignment.
    Gangwar’s electoral journey started in 1984 when he lost to Congress candidate Abida Begum, the wife of former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, following which he contested the Lok Sabha polls again in 1989 and became an MP for the first time.
    He emerged victorious in Lok Sabha elections from 1989 to 2019, barring 2009, when Praveen Singh Aron of the Congress defeated him.
    Earlier in the day, the CM bid farewell to outgoing governor C P Radhakrishnan at the airport.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)