President Droupadi Murmu has appointed Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as Tamil Nadu Governor as part of a major gubernatorial reshuffle. | Photo Credit: UMESH KUMAR V

Keralam Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar has been appointed as the Governor of Tamil Nadu, as part of a major gubernatorial reshuffle effected by President Droupadi Murmu on Monday.

Arlekar, who was sworn in as Keralam Governor on January 2 last year, had been holding the additional charge of Tamil Nadu since March 12 this year.

Sikkim Governor Om Prakash Mathur will be the new Governor of Keralam in place of Arlekar, a communique issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.

Mathur was appointed Sikkim Govenor on July 27, 2024.

Besides them, the President has approved appointments of four new governors.

Senior BJP leader and former Rajya Sabha member Dushyant Gautam has been appointed as the new Sikkim Governor in place of Mathur.

Sudha Yadav has been named the Governor of Karnataka and Dhal Singh Bisen will be the new Uttarakhand Governor, the communique said.

Yadav is a member of the Parliamentary Board of the BJP. She is the second woman to hold the position after late Sushma Swaraj.

A former Lok Sabha member from Mahendragarh, Haryana, Yadav will succeed Thaawarchand Gehlot.

Gehlot, a former Union minister, had been the Karnataka Governor since July 11, 2021.

Bisen, a senior BJP leader from Madhya Pradesh, is a former MP from the state’s Balaghat constituency. He was also a Cabinet minister in the MP government from 2003 to 2005.

Bisen succeeds Lt General Gurmit Singh. Singh had assumed the office on September 15, 2021.

Senior BJP leader from Jharkhand, Braj Mohan Ram, has been appointed as the Governor of Odisha.

Ram (68), a former Lok Sabha member from Jharkhand’s Palamu constituency, will succeed Hari Babu Kambhampati.

Kambhampati was Mizoram Governor before being appointed as the Governor of Odisha in December 2024.

These appointments will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices, the communique said.

All four new governors -- Gautam, Yadav, Bisen and Ram -- are veteran OBC and SC leaders having decades of grassroots, electoral and legislative experience from across the heartland states of the country.

Published on October 13, 2026