Koshyari out, Bais gets Maha Raj Bhawan!

Mumbai: After much tussle over the past few months, on Sunday, Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari finally left the Raj Bhawan. A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson on Sunday said President Droupadi Murmu has accepted the resignation of Koshyari.

In his place, Ramesh Bais, who was the governor of Jharkhand, has been appointed governor of Maharashtra.
Koshyari, who has been in the line of opposition fire over his remarks on Chhatrapati Shivaji, said last month that he had conveyed his desire to quit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and that he would like to spend the remainder of his life reading, writing and in other activities.

Koshyari, 80, took charge as Maharashtra governor in September 2019 at the time of a political turmoil in the state following Shiv Sena severing its ties with the BJP.

He had administered the oath of office to Devendra Fadnavis as the chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar as the deputy chief minster in a shock early morning ceremony, but that government lasted only three days.

When the Uddhav Thakeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi was in power, he had several run-ins with the government on a range of issues, including the appointment of 12 members to the state legislative council from the gubernatorial quota, which he never approved. The MVA had accused him of acting in a partisan manner.

The latest controversy surrounding Koshyari was about his remarks on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, whom he described as the “icon of olden times”. The remark striggered protests from the opposition parties, who demanded that he be sacked.