KOLKATA: R N Ravi entered Lok Bhavan in Kolkata on Wednesday evening hours after the outgoing Governor left the city in the afternoon.
Ravi will take oath as the new Governor of West Bengal on Thursday amid controversy in connection with his predecessor C V Ananda Bose’s sudden removal about 20 months before his tenure was scheduled to end in 2027.
Ravi, a retired IPS officer of the 1976 batch who served as Governor of Tamil Nadu, will take oath at Lok Bhavan, erstwhile Raj Bhavan, at 11 am on Thursday. Mamata Banerjee and the Leader of the Opposition in the state legislative assembly and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Nandigram, have been invited to attend the ceremony.
The Centre suddenly moved C. V. Ananda Bose out of Lok Bhavan last week after three and a half years in office and announced R. N. Ravi as the new Governor of Bengal, prompting Mamata to make scathing attacks on Amit Shah as he had allegedly conspired to force Bose to resign ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in the state. She also attacked the new Governor, branding him as ‘BJP cadre.’
Mamata on Saturday slammed Ravi, terming him a "BJP cadre" and virtually signalling an escalating face-off between the state secretariat Nabanna and Lok Bhavan in the coming days.
She claimed that the sudden resignation of C V Ananda Bose as Governor of West Bengal was the result of pressure allegedly created by the BJP-led government at the Centre.
Addressing supporters of her party All India Trinamool Congress at the dharna site at Esplanade Metro Channel, Mamata accused the Centre of attempting to convert Lok Bhavan into a political outpost in the run up to the Assembly elections scheduled in the state in April.
"Do you know how C V Ananda Bose was removed? I know everything. He was threatened. They want to distribute money from Lok Bhavan. They want Lok Bhavan to be converted into a BJP party office. But everybody may not agree to such whims and fancies of Delhi," she alleged, while attacking the incoming Governor and saying, “Remember that Bengal is a tough turf.”
Referring to Tamil Nadu, where Ravi is also the existing Governor, Mamata alleged, “He has also disturbed the Chief Minister Stalin there. The newcomer is a BJP cadre who has undergone parades conducted by the party.”
Ravi has held several important positions in the Intelligence Bureau and the Central Bureau of Investigation during his professional career.
Ravi, a former IPS officer, served in the CBI and the IB before becoming the deputy National Security Council Secretariat National Security Advisor in 2018. After retirement, he served as the Governor of Meghalaya before taking charge in Tamil Nadu.