Headlines
Amidst controversy new Tripura governor takes charge
Agartala, May 20
Amidst controversy over his
Hindutva ideology, BJP leader Tathagata Roy took charge as the 16th
governor of Left-ruled Tripura on Wednesday.
The 70-year-old
civil-engineer-turned-politician was sworn-in by Tripura High Court
Chief Justice Deepak Gupta at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan here.
Tripura
Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, his cabinet colleagues, leaders of various
political parties and army and police officials were present during the
ceremony.
Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya had been holding the gubernatorial posts of Tripura along with Assam.
Roy
was a member of Bharatiya Jatana Party (BJP) national executive and
president of party's West Bengal unit from 2002 to 2006 and contested
the Lok Sabha elections in the last year's parliamentary polls in
Bengal.
He was in Jadavpur University in Kolkata as professor and
founder head of the department of construction engineering after he
played a key role in construction of metro rail in Kolkata as its chief
engineer.
After the President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Roy as
the new governor of Tripura on May 12, state's ruling Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPI-M) threatened to launch a mass movement if Roy
crossed his constitutional limit.
"We welcome (Tathagata) Roy as
governor of Tripura. Like the previous Congress government, the BJP-led
NDA (National democratic Alliance) government at the Centre is
appointing their leaders as governors of various states," CPI-M Tripura
state secretary Bijan Dhar had told reporters.
"If the new governor crosses his constitutional limit, the CPI-M would launch a mass movement against him," Dhar had said.
Dhar,
also a CPI-M central committee member, said : "We believe that Roy as
the governor of Tripura would cooperate with the Left Front government
and discharge his constitutional duties."
On May 17 in New Delhi,
CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury expressed concerns about
alleged pro-Hindutva comments made by Roy and his comments on Gujarat
riot.
The new governor, however, refused to give any reactions on the views of the CPI-M leaders.
"I have no reaction on these comments. I have no comments on these issues," Roy told IANS.