Former Rajya Sabha MP La Ganesan on Monday took oath as the governor of West Bengal following the resignation of Jagdeep Dhankhar from the post, PTI reported.

Ganesan is the governor of Manipur and will hold additional charge of West Bengal.

Calcutta High Court Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava administered the oath of office to him in the presence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Speaker Biman Banerjee.

Ganesan has been associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh from a young age, according to The New Indian Express. He became a full-time pracharak, or publicist, of the organisation in 1970.

He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1991.

From 2006 to 2009, Ganesan was the chief of BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit.

Dhankar’s resignation

Dhankhar resigned as the governor of West Bengal after the BJP named him as its candidate for the vice presidential election. The polls will be held on August 6 and the last date for filing nominations is July 19.

A former MP, Dhankhar was sworn in as the governor of West Bengal on July 30, 2019. Since then, he and Mamata Banerjee had been at loggerheads on several matters.

Dhankhar has been a vocal critic of the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal. Banerjee, on her part, accused the former governor of being a mouthpiece of the BJP-led central government. She alleged that he would interfere with the state government’s functioning.