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The people’s newsroom

PoliticsStates

Dhal Singh Bisen sworn in as Uttarakhand's ninth Governor

The former Balaghat MP took the oath at Lok Bhavan in Dehradun on Monday morning, replacing Lt Gen (retd) Gurmeet Singh, the longest-serving Governor in the state's history.

From the editorial desk · DehradunPublished
The Governor's House in Nainital, Uttarakhand (file photo)
The Governor's House in Nainital, Uttarakhand (file photo)Photo: Utkarsh saxena / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Key points

  1. Dhal Singh Bisen took the oath as Governor of Uttarakhand at 11 am on Monday at Lok Bhavan, Dehradun.
  2. Acting Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari of the Uttarakhand High Court administered the oath.
  3. Bisen, a four-time MLA and former Balaghat MP, takes over from Lt Gen (retd) Gurmeet Singh.

Dhal Singh Bisen was sworn in as the Governor of Uttarakhand on Monday, becoming the ninth person to hold the office since the hill state was carved out of Uttar Pradesh.

Acting Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Tiwari of the Uttarakhand High Court administered the oath at 11 am at Lok Bhavan in Dehradun, the Governor’s residence that was earlier known as Raj Bhavan. Bisen had flown in on Sunday evening and was given a guard of honour by Uttarakhand Police at Jolly Grant Airport.

Secretary to the Governor Ravinath Raman, High Court Registrar General K K Shukla, Protocol Secretary Vinod Kumar Suman and Garhwal Divisional Commissioner Anand Swaroop were among the officials who received him.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami congratulated Bisen on X soon after the ceremony, welcoming him as the Governor of “Devbhoomi Uttarakhand” and noting that he was the state’s ninth.

From Seoni to Dehradun

Bisen, an Ayurvedic doctor and farmer from Pipariya village in Madhya Pradesh’s Seoni district, has spent most of his political life in the BJP in that state. He was elected four times to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly from Barghat and served as a cabinet minister from 2003 to 2005. He chaired the state’s Finance Commission from 2011 to 2013, and in 2019 won the Balaghat Lok Sabha seat, sitting in the 17th Lok Sabha until 2024.

President Droupadi Murmu named him to the post on 12 October in a reshuffle that sent new Governors to six states, including Tamil Nadu, Keralam, Karnataka, Odisha and Sikkim.

A long tenure ends

Bisen succeeds Lieutenant General (retd) Gurmeet Singh, who became the longest-serving Governor in Uttarakhand’s history in July. On 5 July he completed 1,755 days in office, passing the record set by Sudarshan Agarwal.

The new Governor arrives in a state heading into an election year. Uttarakhand’s Assembly completes its term in early 2027, and the Congress plans to gherao the Assembly during its coming session, a move the state BJP chief has dismissed as “negative politics”.