President Murmu appoints Governors for six states; two incumbents move

What was announced

President Droupadi Murmu appointed Governors for six states on Monday, October 12, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique reported by PTI in a ThePrint article dated October 13. Mathrubhumi and DNA India carried the same list of names.

Two sitting Governors were moved and four people were newly appointed:

• Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar moves from Keralam to Tamil Nadu. PTI reports that he took the oath in Keralam on January 2, 2025, and had held additional charge of Tamil Nadu since March 12, 2026.
• Om Prakash Mathur, Governor of Sikkim since July 27, 2024, becomes Governor of Keralam, according to PTI.
• Dushyant Gautam is appointed Governor of Sikkim.
• Sudha Yadav is appointed Governor of Karnataka, succeeding Thaawarchand Gehlot, who has held the post since July 11, 2021, according to PTI.
• Dhal Singh Bisen is appointed Governor of Uttarakhand, succeeding Lt Gen Gurmit Singh, who took office on September 15, 2021, according to PTI.
• Braj Mohan Ram is appointed Governor of Odisha, succeeding Hari Babu Kambhampati.

The communique says each appointment takes effect from the date the appointee assumes charge. None of the reports read gives those dates.

Who the new appointees are

PTI describes the four new appointees as veteran BJP leaders from OBC or Scheduled Caste backgrounds, with 25 to 45 years of party service. Its profiles say Gautam has been the BJP's national general secretary, national president of its Scheduled Caste Morcha, a Municipal Corporation of Delhi councillor and a Rajya Sabha member. Yadav is a former Lok Sabha member for Mahendragarh, sits on the BJP Parliamentary Board and served on the National Commission for Backward Classes from 2019 to 2022. Bisen is a four-time MLA, a former Balaghat MP and a former Madhya Pradesh cabinet minister. Ram, aged 68, is a former MLA in undivided Bihar and was elected three times from Palamu to the Lok Sabha, in 1996, 1998 and 1999.

Reactions

DNA India reports congratulatory posts on X from Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju, Uttar Pradesh BJP president Pankaj Chaudhary, and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, who welcomed Bisen. The reports read contain no criticism of the appointments and no statement from the opposition.

How the reports differ

The three reports read agree on the names and the states. They differ in detail rather than substance: Mathrubhumi gives only the list, without previous posts or dates, while PTI adds the profiles and the earlier terms of the outgoing Governors, and DNA India focuses on the reactions.