The NDA government on Tuesday appointed former Union Minister Najma Heptulla as Governor of Manipur along with three other gubernatorial appointments.
Heptulla, 76, had last month resigned as Minority Affairs Minister from Union Cabinet.
The resignation had come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is believed to have set an unwritten writ of '75-year age bar' for ministers and had kept veterans like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi out of the Cabinet and co-opted them in 'Margdarshak Mandal'.
Meghalaya Governor V Shanmuganathan was holding the additional charge as Manipur Governor.
Incidentally, all the new appointees have been directly associated with the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Former Rajya Sabha member VP Singh Badnore will be the new Governor of Punjab, the communique said. 68-year-old Badnore hails from Rajasthan and has also served as Cabinet minister in Rajasthan government in the past.
Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki was holding additional charge of Punjab, which goes to polls next year, after Shivraj Patil's term ended last year.
Banwarilal Purohit, a three-time former member of Lok Sabha from Nagpur and Managing Editor of Central India's daily 'The Hitavada', will be the Governor of Assam while Delhi-based BJP leader and former MLA Prof Jagdish Mukhi was made Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique.
Nagaland Governor Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya was holding additional charge as Assam Governor, a post which will now be assumed by 76-year-old Purohit.
Professor Jagdish Mukhi, who has been Member of Delhi Legislative Assembly from Janakpuri constituency, has been appointed as Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the communique said.
73-year-old Mukhi has been appointed in place of Lt General (Retd) A K Singh, it said.
