President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday removed JP Rajkhowa from the post of the governor of Arunachal Pradesh. Governor of Meghalaya V Shanmuganathan will take up the additional role of discharging the functions of the position in Arunachal Pradesh, ANI reported.
Rajkhowa's removal from the position comes a week after he refused to resign from the post, saying he wanted the president to order his dismissal. Claiming that he had been asked to resign on "health grounds", he said he wanted the Narendra Modi-led Union government to "use [the] provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," to order his dismissal.
He said he was told about the government's decision to ask him to resign on August 27, after which he had called Home Affairs Minister Rajnath Singh to verify the situation. While Singh said he knew nothing about the move, another "central minister" had informed him on August 30 that "a decision had been taken at a high level" to ask him to resign on "health grounds", Rajkhowa had said.
The events come around two months after the Supreme Court ordered the restoration of the Congress government in the state. The state's new Chief Minister Pema Khandu proved his party’s majority in the Arunachal Assembly days after the order.
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