NEW DELHI: In a long-awaited change of guard, Bihar governor Satya Pal Malik , who began his career in the socialist camp, will replace long serving Jammu & Kashmir governor N N Vohra, marking the return of a political appointee and indicating a focus on political engagement and development projects.

The Centre on Tuesday announced gubernatorial appointments in several key states including that of Lalji Tandon , BJP veteran from Uttar Pradesh and an associate of late Atal Bihari Vajpayee, as Bihar governor. Former Agra mayor and ex-member of National Commission for Women (NCW) Baby Rani Maurya, a leader from the backward castes, was appointed as Jharkhand governor and prominent Dalit leader from Nalanda and seven-time MLA Satyadev Narayan Arya as Haryana governor.

The reshuffle in Raj Bhavans saw Tripura governor Tathagata Roy, often in the midst of controversy over his outspoken comments, transferred to Meghalaya. He will be replaced by Haryana governor Kaptan Singh Solanki and Meghalaya governor Ganga Prasad will be governor of Sikkim. Tripura has a BJP-led government having ended a long running Marxist control of the state and Roy possibly is not seen as the right choice to aid the relatively inexperienced CM Biplab Deb.

All the picks are party faithfuls, with a long career in the party and public life. Tandon’s appointment as governor of Bihar comes days after the demise of Vajpayee, whose Lucknow parliamentary seat had managed before making way for Rajnath Singh in 2014. He has been out of the political limelight after a new team under Yogi Adityanath emerged in UP.

The choice of a political appointee and breaking the more usual choices like a former military or intelligence head or an ex-bureaucrat with experience in handling J&K affairs, is seen as a conscious decision to facilitate delivery of security and development initiatives while the state is under Governor’s rule. There is a view that political initiatives will take time, with immediate attention on panchayat polls. However, public opinion is in a turmoil after the break-up of the PDP-BJP ties, and there is a view that delivering on public amenities might be a more useful objective at present.

The BJP dispensation at the Centre is keen to bring fruits of governance to the grassroots in J&K and sees the governor’s rule as an opportune window, free from the compulsions of coalition politics. Malik’s immediate assignment will be to deliver the much-delayed civic polls in the state.

Formerly chief of BJP Kisan Morcha, Malik is a Jat, a constituency that BJP is keen on humouring in order to repeat its sweep of 2014 general election and 2017 assembly poll in UP. The recent defeat in Kairana byelection amid indications that a section of the community went back to old favourite- Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD)- would have encouraged the party leadership to redouble its efforts to hold on to the support from the peasant caste.

Ganga Prasad, an OBC from Bihar and an old organisation hand who worked for the party at a time when organising events was a challenge in the state, seems to have been rewarded with a shift to Sikkim from Meghalaya.

Reaction of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar to Malik’s transfer will be awaited as the governor had been a colleague in V P Singh-led Janata Dal . However, ties appeared to have turned frosty when Malik publicly expressed his distress over the horrific Muzaffarpur sex scam. Malik also wrote to the Chief Justice of Patna High Court, raising the hackles of the Nitish supporters who felt that the sordid affair has unfairly been heaped on the CM who, in fact, was the one who ordered an audit of the condition of after-care homes, resulting in unfolding of the scam.

