Kolkata, March 12 – Former Intelligence Bureau (IB) super-cop and former Governor of Tamil Nadu, R.N. Ravi, was sworn in as the new Governor of West Bengal on Thursday morning.
The ceremony began at 11:30 a.m. at Lok Bhavan (formerly Raj Bhavan) in Kolkata. The oath to the new Governor was administered by the Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Sujoy Paul in the presence of dignitaries such as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Speaker of the Assembly Biman Bandopadhyay, and the Chairman of the Left Front in the state, Biman Bose, among others.
However, to the surprise of many, despite being invited, the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, was not present at the event. In fact, no representative from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was present.
Ravi succeeded C.V. Ananda Bose, who suddenly resigned from the position on the evening of March 5, and on the same evening, Ravi’s name was announced as his successor. Ravi arrived in Kolkata on Wednesday, and on the same evening, Bose left the city for his hometown in Kerala.
Before leaving the state, Bose posted an emotional "Open Letter" for the people of West Bengal on the social media handle of Lok Bhavan. In it, he said that his emotional attachment to West Bengal and the people of the state would continue forever.
Ravi is the second IB super-cop to be sworn in as West Bengal Governor in the last one-and-a-half decades.
Before the crucial 2011 Assembly elections in West Bengal, which marked the end of the 34-year-long Left Front regime and the beginning of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress command, former IB chief and also the former National Security Adviser (NSA), M.K. Narayanan, was sworn in as the then-West Bengal Governor.
It could be just a matter of coincidence, but the appointment of former IB super-cop Ravi as the new Governor of West Bengal is also happening when the state is heading towards crucial Assembly elections later this year.
