Ashok Gajapathi Raju replaces Sreedharan Pillai as Goa Governor

NEW DELHI: Senior BJP leader Sreedharan Pillai has been removed from the post of Goa Governor. President Droupadi Murmu has appointed BJP leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju as the new Governor of Goa.

Raju, a native of Chennai had earlier served as civil aviation minister. Pillai has not been given any other posts presently. The order was released from Rashtrapati Bhavan. Governors of three places have been removed. Prof Ashim Kumar Ghosh will be the new Governor of Haryana.

Pillai, who was Mizoram Governor earlier was nominated as Goa Governor in 2021.

Kavinder Gupta has been appointed as the new lieutenant Governor of the union territory of Ladakh. President Murmu has accepted the resignation of Brigadier (Dr) B D Mishra (Retd) from the post of Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh.

Raju was a member of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly for over 25 years. He had also served as minister in the Andhra Pradesh government for 13 years. He had handled the departments of commercial tax, excise, legislative affairs, finance, planning and revenue. He entered politics in 1978 as a Janata Party candidate. He was first elected from the Vijayanagaram Vidhan Sabha constituency. When the Telugu Desam Party was formed in 1982, he joined in it and won the state assembly elections in 1983, 1985, 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2009. He was also elected to the Lok Sabha in 2014. His wife is Sunila Gajapathi Raju.