CHANDIGARH, Feb 3: Punjab Governor and Chandigarh Administrator Banwarilal Purohit submitted his resignation to President Droupadi Murmu today, citing personal reasons.
“Due to my personal reasons and certain other commitments, I tender my resignation from the post of Governor of Punjab and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh. Please accept the same and oblige,” Purohit (84) wrote in his resignation letter.
Purohit’s resignation came a day after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Delhi.
Their meeting came days after the BJP swept the Chandigarh Mayoral polls, retaining all three posts, a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance which alleged tampering with ballot papers by the presiding officer.
Before being appointed as the Governor Punjab and Administrator of Chandigarh, Purohit had also been the Governor of Assam from 2016 to 2017 and the Governor of Tamil Nadu from 2017 to 2021.
Purohit had also been a three-time Lok Sabha member from Nagpur in 1984, 1989 and 1996. He had also won the Assembly elections from Nagpur East in 1978 and from Nagpur South in 1980.
In his more than two-year eventful term as the Governor, Purohit had been at loggerheads with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann over several issues, including holding the Assembly sessions and appointments of Vice-Chancellors.
They had not been on the best of terms as squabble between the Raj Bhavan and the AAP Government surfaced over many issues.
Their relationship nose-dived when the Governor thwarted the Mann-led regime’s plan to summon a special Assembly session in September 2022 to bring a confidence motion after he withdrew his order of summoning it. AAP had alleged that the BJP offered money to its 10 MLAs.
The row between the Raj Bhavan and the AAP Government escalated when Purohit declined appointment of a cardiologist as Vice Chancellor of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences and also sought removal of Punjab Agricultural University Vice Chancellor.
AAP had accused the Governor of interfering into the functioning of the Mann Government at the behest of the BJP and dubbed the Raj Bhavan as the “head office of the BJP.”(PTI)
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