Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit resigns for 'personal reasons'

Punjab governor and Chandigarh administrator Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday resigned from his post citing personal reasons. He had been holding the office since August 2021. The resignation comes a day after Purohit met Union home minister Amit Shah in Delhi.

In his official letter to President Droupadi Murmu, Purohit wrote: "Due to my personal reasons and certain other commitments, I tender my resignation from the post of the Governor of Punjab and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh. Please accept the same and oblige."

The resignation comes in the wake of a war of words between Purohit and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann over clarifications on several issues, with Purohit writing a series of letters to the chief minister, and even warning that he would recommend President’s Rule in the state and launch criminal proceedings if his queries were not answered satisfactorily.

Interestingly, the resignation also follows this week's Chandigarh mayoral polls, in which the BJP retained all three posts, which came as a setback to the Congress-Aam Admi Party (AAP) alliance. However, AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar has since gone to court alleging that ballot papers were tampered with by the presiding officer in order to ensure a sweep for the BJP's Manoj Sonkar.

Earlier this week, the ministry of home affairs posted Rajeev Verma, an AGMUT cadre IAS officer, as advisor to the governor in Chandigarh, a post which had fallen vacant last year.

Three-time MP Purohit (twice from the Congress and once from the BJP), who was voted to the Lok Sabha from Nagpur, has earlier served as the governor of Tamil Nadu in 2016 and Assam in 2017.