Physician-turned-politician Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan is Telangana's new Governor
HYDERABAD: Bharatiya Janata Party's Tamil Nadu unit president Dr. Tamilisai Soundarajan was appointed as the Governor for Telangana on Sunday replacing former Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief ESL Narasimhan, who held the position for the longest period.
The 58-year-old expressed her gratitude to the BJP central leadership for the appointment and said that she would be able to take up the position since her tenure as the BJP chief in Tamil Nadu ends in December.
"I thank God and who is at the helm of affairs of the country (Prime Minister Narendra Modi)...BJP president Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have once again proved that the party will recognise hardwork. I have never contributed anything to the party except my hardwork. I strove hard for the growth of BJP in Tamil Nadu. Recently, we have crossed 43 lakh members for BJP in Tamil Nadu. I wholeheartedly thank my leaders, the BJP cadre in Tamil Nadu, people of Tamil Nadu, my parents and everyone." Soundararajan said to reporters.
Soundarajan's appointment was announced in an official communique by PIB, wherein the President Ram Nath Kovind also authorised several other appointments.
Similarly, former Union minister and BJP veteran Bandaru Dattatreya was appointed as the Governor for Himachal Pradesh. Kalraj Mishra, Governor of Himachal Pradesh was transferred and appointed as Governor of Rajasthan. Bhagat Singh Koshyari as Governor of Maharashtra and Arif Mohammed Khan was appointed as Governor of Kerala.
Telangana's new governor comes from a political family and she is a medical doctor by profession. She is the daughter of Congress leader Kumari Ananthan and also a niece of Congress MP H Vasanthkumar.
However, she was attracted to BJP's ideology and started working full time for the party in the 1990s.
Starting off as the South Chennai District Medical Wing Secretary in 1999, Soundarajan climbed the political ladder quickly, and she was appointed as the National Secretary to BJP in 2013. A year later she was elevated as the president of the BJP Tamil Nadu unit.
However, her fortunes in the electoral arena have not been that good. Soundarajan has contested four elections from 2006 -- two Assembly elections and two Lok Sabha elections -- and lost all of them. Soundarajan was also vocal during the MeToo movement and was critical of the Tamil film industry's silence towards allegations of sexual harassment.
Meanwhile, ESL Narasimhan, who was appointed as the Governor for united Andhra Pradesh in 2009, was also the first common Governor for both States after bifurcation of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.
In July 2019, after the appontment of Biswa Bhusan Harichandan as the Governor for AP, Narasimhan became the Governor for Telangana.
Interestingly, Dr Soundararajan celebrates her birthday on June 2, which happens to be the Telangana formation day.