R. N. Ravi sworn in as West Bengal Governor
text_fields
Kolkata: Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) officer and ex-Governor of Tamil Nadu, R.N. Ravi, was sworn in as the new Governor of West Bengal on Thursday morning.
The oath-taking ceremony began at 11.30 a.m. at Lok Bhavan (formerly Raj Bhavan) in Kolkata. The oath of office was administered by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul in the presence of several dignitaries, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Assembly Speaker Biman Bandopadhyay and Left Front Chairman in the state Biman Bose.
However, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, was notably absent despite being invited. No representative from the Bharatiya Janata Party was present at the ceremony.
Ravi succeeds C.V. Ananda Bose, who resigned from the post on the evening of March 5. On the same day, Ravi’s name was announced as his successor. Ravi arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday, while Bose left the city for his hometown in Kerala later that evening.
Before departing, Bose shared an emotional “Open Letter” addressed to the people of West Bengal on Lok Bhavan’s social media handle, expressing that his emotional bond with the state and its people would remain forever.
Ravi becomes the second former Intelligence Bureau officer to serve as West Bengal Governor in the past one-and-a-half decades.
Before the 2011 Assembly elections in the state — which ended the 34-year-long Left Front rule and brought the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress to power — former IB chief and National Security Adviser M.K. Narayanan had also taken oath as the Governor of West Bengal.
The appointment of Ravi, another former IB officer, comes at a time when the state is heading towards crucial Assembly elections later this year.
With IANS inputs