Manipur Governor La Ganesan on Monday took oath as the acting Governor of West Bengal at Raj Bhawan in Kolkata in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, PTI reported. The development comes after former Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was nominated as the vice president candidate by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
La Ganesan is a senior BJP leader and former RSS Pracharak from Tamil Nadu. Ganesan was appointed as Manipur Governor in 2021 after the post fell vacant following the retirement of Najma Heptulla on August 10.
Ganesan was a RSS Pracharak before being appointed as the general secretary of BJP's Tamil Nadu unit. He worked in the party in several capacities at the national and state levels. Ganesan represented Madhya Pradesh in the Upper House of the Parliament.
READ | BJP Picks 'Kisan Putra' Jagdeep Dhankhar As Vice-President Candidate At Party's Parliamentary Meet
Earlier in the day, Jagdeep Dhankhar filed his nomination in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior Union ministers. The 71-year-old said he would always strive to enhance democratic values.
Dhankhar told reporters that he had never thought even in his dreams that an ordinary person from a farmer's family like him would get such a "historic" opportunity.
"I am grateful to the Prime Minister and the leadership that a humble man like me from a 'Kisan' family who would never have got an education but for a scholarship has been given this historic opportunity. I take it as a major milestone reflection on the events in which we are at this moment," PTI quoted Dhankhar as saying.
In the vice presidential election, members of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha vote. The majority mark is 391. The BJP alone has 394 MPs out of the current strength of 780. The major parties which have already declared their support to Dhankhar include the JD(U), the BJD and the YSR Congress which have 21, 21 and 31 MPs respectively. This along with the BJP's 394, takes his support to 467 MPs.