New Delhi: For the second time in a row, the Narendra Modi government has dispatched a Kerala BJP president to Mizoram as the governor.
As per a press communiqué from the Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 26, P.S. Sreedharan Pillai is to take over as the governor of the northeastern border state.
In May 2018, when Kummanam Rajashekharan was entrusted with the gubernatorial position in Mizoram, Pillai took over from him as the state unit president. He led the party’s campaign when the issue of women’s entry into the Sabarimala temple was at its height.
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However, Kummanam, considered close to the RSS, couldn’t finish his term because of massive opposition in Mizoram from various civil society groups against some controversial statements that he had made “against Christian missionaries and Christians in general”.
A statement issued by People’s Representation for Identity and Status of Mizoram (PRISM) had said, “He was general convenor of Nilakkal Action council and was directly instrumental in the Nilakkal Hindu-Christian conflict of 1983”.
With the state assembly elections approaching, the BJP, which has been trying to make headway in the Christian-majority state, was on the back foot due to these protests. In March 2019, barely ten months after he took over the post, Kummanam tendered his resignation to the President.
Assam governor Jagdish Mukhi was then assigned the additional charge of Mizoram’s governorship. Thereafter, Kummanam was selected by the party for the Lok Sabha elections from the Thiruvananthapuram seat against Congress’s Shashi Tharoor. He lost to Tharoor by nearly one lakh votes.
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Pillai, a lawyer by profession and an author of many books, is considered a ‘moderate’ in comparison to Kummanam.
Kerala-based newspapers quoted Pillai as saying that he was happy to take the responsibility entrusted by his party. “The Prime Minister had spoken to me a few days ago about the posting,” he told PTI.
Pillai is the third person from Kerala to be the governor of Mizoram. Prior to Rajashekharan, Congress leader Vakkom Purushothaman held the post between 2011 and 2014.