Only 4 Governors have completed their term in Bihar

The NDA presidential candidate Ramnath Kovind on Tuesday resigned as Bihar Governor. The Governor of neighbouring West Bengal, Keshari Nath Tripathi, will hold the additional charge of Bihar till a new incumbent is announced. But if one takes into account the list of Governors who have served the State since Independence, then surprisingly only four out of 29 Governors have been able to complete their term.

It was the third Governor of Bihar RR Diwakar who was the first incumbent to complete his term from June 1952 to July 1957. (The first Bihar Governor Jairam Das Daulatram served on the gubernatorial post for barely five months from August 15, 1947, to January 11, 1948).

In that era, an educationist and an intellectual Dr Zakir Hussain succeeded RR Diwakar. Dr Hussain was the second Governor to complete his term from 1957 to 1962. Later, he went on to become India’s President in 1967. In fact, Kovind will be the second Bihar Governor to become President, if elected.

Though the State has seen as many as 29 Governors taking oath since Independence, the other two persons who could complete their terms were: MAS Ayyangar and AR Kidwai. While Ayyangar was Governor here from 1962 to 1967, Kidwai occupied the gubernatorial post twice: from September 1979 to March 1985, and then again from August 1993 to April 1998.

It’s worth mentioning here that KN Tripathi, who was given additional charge of Bihar today, was earlier also given the same role from November 2014 to August 2015, when the then incumbent DY Patil, a UPA nominee, was asked to quit.

In the annals of Bihar’s history, it is believed that it was Gopal Krishna Gandhi who had one of the shortest stints of four months and 21 days as Governor here. Incidentally, Gandhi, who was then Bengal Governor, was also holding the additional charge of Bihar following the ouster of Buta Singh as Governor after the Supreme Court passed strictures against him for the 2005 President’s Rule fiasco.

 Otherwise, technically, it was RD Pradhan, a retired bureaucrat, who had the shortest term as Bihar Governor for barely four days: from January 29 to February 2, 1989.