The governor of West Bengal since November 17, 2022, is C. V. Ananda Bose, a former Indian civil servant. Prior to this, he worked for the Indian Administrative Service. His appointment was official, according to a Rashtrapati Bhavan statement. La Ganesan, the governor of Manipur, assumed additional state control in July after the incumbent Jagdeep Dhankhar received the National Democratic Alliance’s nomination for vice president (NDA).
Bose stated that he anticipates friendly relations with the elected government in an interview with The Indian Express on Thursday. “The Governor serves as the state’s head. To work within the constraints of the Constitution, I would like to provide full cooperation, he said. In addition, Bose pledged to serve as a link between the Center and the state.
Bose succeeds Jagdeep Dhankar, who frequently clashed with the state’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) administration led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The 71-year-old retired Kerala-trained Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official is a member of the 1977 batch.
Early life and career
He was born on January 2, 1951, in Mannanam, Kerala’s Kottayam district, and did PhD from Rajasthan’s BITS, Pilani. His mother’s name is C Padmavaty Amma, and his father’s name is P K Vasudevan Pillai. Nanditha Bose and A Vasudev Bose are the couple’s two children, and his wife’s name is L S Lakshmi. Bose’s father, Vasudevan Nair, who fought alongside Netaji, named him after independence hero Subhash Chandra Bose.
Political journey
The new governor is also the first-ever Fellow of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, and the recipient of the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship. Before the 2019 general elections, he joined the BJP, and the union labour ministry ordered him to put together an action plan for migrant workers’ welfare during the COVID-19 issue.
Bose retired in 2011 after his final position as an administrator at the National Museum in New Delhi. Bose, who served as Director General of the National Museum, presided over the committee constituted by the Supreme Court to inventory the treasures of Kerala’s Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple, one of the richest shrines in the world, at Thiruvananthapuram. He served as the district collector in Kerala’s Quilon district (now Kollam).
During K Karunakaran’s tenure as chief minister of Kerala, Bose also served as his principal secretary and as an additional secretary in the ministry of agriculture. Karunakaran was a longtime member of Congress. The new governor is a skilled orator who has spoken at numerous prestigious international gatherings, including the UN General Assembly.
Bose is not just a speaker; he is also a writer. He has published 350 works, including 45 English, Malayalam, and Hindi books containing novels, short stories, poems, and essays. The UN chose his initiatives four times as “Global Best Practice.” He received the National (Special) Habitat award from the Indian government.
