President Droupadi Murmu appointed Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as the new Governor of Kerala.
He succeeds Arif Mohammed Khan who has been made the Bihar Governor. Interestingly, elections for the Bihar Assembly will be held next year.
Arif Mohammed Khan's tenure as the Kerala Governor was characterized by almost constant confrontations with the CPI(M)-led state government. He had a contentious relationship with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and frequently clashed with the CPI(M) student wing, the SFI, which he once called a "criminal outfit.
Due to his outspoken personality and keen interest in public issues, Kerala Raj Bhavan has become a hotbed of politics, with the Governor very often interacting with the press. Rajendra Arlekar, the newly appointed Governor of Kerala, had been the 29th Governor of Bihar and the 21st Governor of Himachal Pradesh earlier.
A BJP leader from Goa, Arlekar has been a Cabinet Minister and Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly.
Strong RSS background, he is a contemporary of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the organization and joined the BJP at the same time as PM Modi.
