President Droupadi Murmu today appointed Phagu Chauhan as the new Governor of Meghalaya.
Chauhan had previously served as the 29th Governor of Bihar from July 2019. He is a former member of 17th Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh from Ghosi, a seat he won a record six times, representing various parties like the Lok Dal, Bahujan Samaj Party and Bharatiya Janata Party.
During his tenure as Governor of Bihar and ex-officio Chancellor of state universities, many became entangled in multiple scams, which came into light after special vigilance unit raids. One such case was Magadh University, where the Vice-Chancellor was suspected of a Rs 30 crore fraud. Despite this, Chauhan did not sack the VC, who was also from Uttar Pradesh.
Then, in February 2021, the Governor axed 12 assistant professors of Rajendra College in Chapra for dancing to Bollywood tunes with students, as well as suspended its principal, triggering charges of “moral policing” and then suspended three professors of Jai Prakash University, to which Rajendra College is affiliated, for failing to carry out an “impartial” inquiry into the controversy.
Chauhan succeeds as Meghalaya Governor from Brig (retd) BD Mishra, who took on Meghalaya as an additional charge to his role as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh.
Besides Chauhan, 13 new Governors were also appointed.
Brig Mishra has been appointed as Lt Governor of Ladakh. Lt Gen (retd) Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik was appointed as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh, Gulab Chand Kataria was appointed as Governor of Assam and Lakshman Prasad Acharya as Governor of Sikkim.
