New Delhi: At least 33 Bills in four opposition-ruled states are pending for governor or presidential assent to date, Press Trust of India has reported. The report says that this includes 19 from West Bengal, 10 from Karnataka, three from Telangana and at least one from Kerala. The Bengal governor has disputed the number for his state, but opposition governments in states have alleged for a while now that their legislative mandate is being undermined by unelected governors appointed by the Union government.The post of the governor has been a controversial one, and the role played by the person in Raj Bhavans has been spoken of as distorting democracy in many Supreme Court judgements in the past.The Supreme Court has recently held in an opinion that it cannot impose any “timelines” for decisions of the president and the governor on granting assent to Bills under Articles 200/201 of the constitution. This opinion assumes significance as in several opposition-ruled states there has been increasing confrontation between the state government and governors, the latter increasingly singing from another hymn sheet, often echoing political views of the union government.So who are these governors now?A look at the background of governors across India shows that 18 are from the BJP and at least 10 have had a direct, established association with its ideological fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. At least two Supreme Court judges have gone on to be appointed governors in recent years, after retirement. One is still in office.Andhra Pradesh: Justice (retired) S. Abdul NazeerFormer Supreme Court judge Justice S. Abdul Nazeer was appointed the governor of Andhra Pradesh in February 2023. He had retired from the apex court only a month ago. He is the third of the five-judge Ayodhya bench to receive a post-retirement posting from the Modi government. Justice Nazeer heard several cases that were of importance to the current Union government, including the Ayodhya title suit case decided in November 2019 and the demonetisation case in 2023. In the instant triple talaq case, he dissented, ruling that the practice was not invalid.Arunachal Pradesh: Lieutenant General (retired) K.T. ParnaikLt Gen. Parnaik who was appointed governor in 2023 has served as commander of the Army’s Northern Command, he retired from the Army on June 30 in 2013.Assam: Lakshman Prasad AcharyaAcharya has been a former RSS and BJP leader. He served as a member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council until he was appointed Sikkim governor in 2023. In 2024, he was appointed Assam governor with additional charge of Manipur.File image. President Droupadi Murmu being welcomed by Bihar Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi upon her arrival in Gaya Ji, Bihar. Photo: X/@rashtrapatibhvn via PTI.Bihar: Arif Mohammed KhanArif Mohammed Khan, who was appointed Bihar governor in December 2024 has been associated with various political parties. He was a minister in the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government and later a Janata Party lieutenant under V.P. Singh’s leadership. Later, he joined and then left the Bharatiya Janata Party, before becoming Kerala governor in 2019.His tenure as Kerala governor was contentious with frequent confrontations with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led United Democratic Front government. Khan had expressed displeasure when the Kerala government moved court against the Citizenship Amendment Act, levelled charges of nepotism in university appointments, and summoned the Kerala chief secretary and state police chief, raising questions of overreach.Chhattisgarh: Ramen DekaDeka, who was appointed as Chhattisgarh governor last year, has previously served as Assam BJP chief and elected twice to the Lok Sabha from the party. He has also served as the BJP’s national secretary.Goa: Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi RajuPusapati Ashok Gajapati Raju has served as union minister in the first Narendra Modi government prior to the Telugu Desam Party’s exit from the National Democratic Alliance in 2018 over special status to Andhra Pradesh. Prior to that, he has held several ministerial positions in Andhra Pradesh.Gujarat and Maharashtra: Acharya DevvratFormer educator Acharya Devvrat who has a background in the RSS serves as the Gujarat governor along with additional charge of Maharashtra after C.P. Radhakrishnan was elected the vice-president. Prior to becoming Gujarat governor, Devvrat served as Himachal Pradesh governor from 2015 to 2019.According to his introduction on the Raj Bhavan website, Devvrat is a former head of Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Haryana which is one of the RSS’ farmer’s wings.Himachal Pradesh: Shiv Pratap ShuklaFormerly associated with the ABVP (the RSS student wing), Shukla has served as a minister in Uttar Pradesh under the Kalyan Singh government. He has also served as junior finance minister in the first Narendra Modi government, and has been a Rajya Sabha member.Shukla has been in a tussle with the Congress’ Himachal Pradesh government over appointment of vice-chancellors to two universities in the state. The state government has also accused the Raj Bhavan of withholding approval to bills passed by the state assembly.Haryana: Ashim Kumar GhoshA former educator, Ghosh joined the BJP in 1991. He served as the West Bengal BJP chief between 1999-2002. He was appointed Haryana governor in July 2025.Jharkhand: Santosh Kumar GangwarFormer union minister Gangwar, who has been an RSS member, has been an eight-time Lok Sabha MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly. He had served as a minister in Vajpayee-led and Narendra Modi-led governments. He was appointed Jharkhand governor in 2024.Karnataka: Thawarchand GehlotFormer union minister Thawarchand Gehlot has been an active member of the RSS since 1962.A BJP MP for four terms. He has also been the BJP’s Karnataka state-in-charge between 2006 and 2014. Between 2014 and 2021, he served as the Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, following which he was appointed as the Governor of Karnataka in 2021.Gehlot in his role as governor sanctioned the prosecution against chief minister Siddaramaiah in the alleged Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam case last year.The Congress government in the state has also pointed to his refusal to assent to Bills, and alleged that he has been acting at the behest of the BJP-led Union government.File image. B S Yediyurappa greets Basavaraj Bommai as Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot looks on during the oath taking ceremony at Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru, Wednesday, July 28, 2021. Photo: PTIKerala: Rajendra Vishwanath ArlekarArlekar who became Kerala governor in January 2024 has been associated with the RSS during childhood and has been an active BJP member since 1989. He has served as the Goa BJP chief and an MLA in the Goa assembly as well as served as Goa assembly speaker.Earlier this year, the CPI(M) accused Arlekar of crossing a constitutional line by using RSS emblems at official functions hosted by Raj Bhavan.Arlekar, who has also faced criticism for withholding assent to Bills, had called the Supreme Court verdict setting a timeline for governors to deal with the Bills passed by the legislature as an “overreach” by the judiciary – drawing criticism from the CPI(M) and the Congress.Madhya Pradesh: Mangubhai Chaganbhai PatelPatel who became Madhya Pradesh governor in 2021 is a former Gujarat minister, a former deputy speaker and a senior BJP MLA. Patel is said to have joined the RSS when he was very young. According to Vibes of India, he was one of the key figures who had convinced Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani to set up the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, claiming that it could help “free” tribal people from Christian conversions.Manipur and Nagaland: Ajay Kumar BhallaFormer Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla was appointed Manipur governor in December 2024. In August 2025, he was given additional charge as governor of Nagaland.Meghalaya: C.H. VijayashankarFormer Karnataka MLA and two-time BJP Lok Sabha MP from Mysuru, Vijayashankar has been Meghalaya governor since 2024.While he has been with the BJP through most of his political career, he was in the Congress for two years from 2017 to 2019 before returning to the saffron party.Mizoram: General (retired) V.K. SinghFormer chief of army staff, General V.K. Singh joined the BJP in 2014 and served as Lok Sabha MP twice from Ghaziabad. He has also served as MoS External Affairs, and MoS Civil Aviation. The former army chief was also seen in photographs wearing RSS uniform at an event in 2018 along which stirred a row.Odisha: Hari Babu KambhampatiKambhampati took oath as Odisha governor in January after serving as the Mizoram governor since 2021. Kambhampati has been an MP from Visakhapatnam and Andhra Pradesh BJP state chief from 2014 to 2018.He has also spoken of his association with the RSS and the Janata Party.Punjab: Gulab Chand KatariaKataria, a former BJP leader, has served as Rajasthan home minister as well as leader of opposition in the state assembly before being appointed as Assam governor in 2023.He was appointed as Punjab governor in 2024.Earlier this year, the AAP government in Punjab had moved Supreme Court challenging the Governor’ action in reserving Bills passed by the state legislative assembly for the President’s assent.Rajasthan: Haribhau Kisanrao BagdeBagde became Rajasthan governor in July. A veteran RSS leader Bagde has been a BJP leader from Maharashtra where he has served as MLA in the Maharashtra assembly for five terms. He has also served as the BJP’s first Assembly Speaker in 2014 in the state.Sikkim: Om Prakash MathurMathur has been a RSS pracharak since 1972 and also served as BJP national vice president. He has also been the Rajasthan state BJP chief and served two terms in the Rajya Sabha.Tamil Nadu: R.N. RaviRavi, has formerly served in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and in the union home ministry’s intelligence bureau particularly working on insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir, north-east and Maoist affected regions. File image. Prime Minister Narendra Modi being welcomed by Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi upon his arrival at the Mandapam Helipad in Rameswaram. Photo: X/@rajbhavan_tn on X via PTI.He was appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee in the Prime Minister’s Office, and also served as the Centre’s Interlocutor for the Naga peace talks in August 2014.Appointed as Tamil Nadu governor in 2021, Ravi has been at the centre of confrontation with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led state government. In April the Supreme Court delivered a verdict which laid down timelines for the president and the governor to act on the assent, withholding and reservation of Bills, after the state government moved the apex court against Ravi’s decision to withhold assent to 10 Bills.Last week, the Supreme Court held that the top court cannot impose any timelines for decisions of the president and the governor on granting assent to Bills under Articles 200/201 of the constitution, following a presidential reference made in May following the judgment delivered by a two-judge bench.Telangana: Jishnu Dev VarmaVarma, former deputy chief minister of Tripura, became Telangana governor in July 2024.Varma is a senior BJP leader from Tripura, who has held various portfolios in the state government. He is a member of the Tripura royal family and joined the BJP in 1993.The Indian Express has reported that he joined BJP during the Ram Temple movement after stints in Congress and TMC. He was later named the party’s national general secretary in-charge of Tripura.Tripura: Indra Sena Reddy NalluReddy has been a three-time MLA from the BJP in Andhra Pradesh. He has been the party’s Andhra Pradesh state president and the BJP’s national secretary. He was appointed to the Raj Bhavan in Tripura in October 2023.Uttar Pradesh: Anandiben PatelPatel became the first woman chief minister of Gujarat when Narendra Modi moved to the Centre after becoming the prime minister in 2014. She became Uttar Pradesh governor in 2019. Prior to that, she has served as the governor of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.She has been president of the BJP’s State Women’s Front, vice-president of the BJP’s state unit, and a member of the national executive council of BJP.Uttarakhand: Lt Gen. Gurmit SinghFormer deputy chief staff of the Indian Army, Singh was appointed as Uttarakhand governor in 2021.West Bengal: C.V. Ananda BoseBose is a former IAS officer who was appointed West Bengal governor in 2022. He has been at odds with the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in the state since his appointment. Bose has routinely criticised law and order in the state, and recently remarked that it has been “strangulated” by the protectors of the Constitution.Earlier this month, Raj Bhavan was searched by security agencies after TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee alleged that Bose was “entertaining BJP criminals in Raj Bhavan and giving them arms and ammunition to go and attack Trinamool workers”.Last year chief minister Mamata Banerjee had vowed to never visit Raj Bhavan after a woman employee had alleged sexual harassment.