Governors row: Reward and rehab

Tripathi had expressed his disappointment when the ticket to the Allahabad Lok Sabha seat was given to Shyama Charan Gupta. He eventually fell in line, and his name was since doing the rounds among probables for governor’s postings. The BJP veteran has never been a Lok Sabha MP. An RSS volunteer at age 12, and jailed in connection with the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, Tripathi was first elected an MLA on a Janata Party ticket in 1977 from Jhunsi, Allahabad, and made finance and sales tax minister. He was a BJP MLA four times from Allahabad (South) constituency, and UP assembly Speaker three times. He was also UP BJP president in 2004.

P B Acharya, 83

Nagaland

A low-profile BJP leader who has spent his entire political career in organisational work, essentially in the northeastern states of Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Till his appointment as governor of Nagaland, he was working among northeastern tribals as the head of the party’s tribal cell in a region that remains a challenge to the BJP. He has learnt some local languages in almost four decades spent in the Northeast. Acharya has never ventured into electoral politics, while his four children are not associated with politics. Acharya is said to be close to Narendra Modi, has his roots in BJP student wing the ABVP, and has worked closely with the RSS.

Ram Naik, 80

Uttar Pradesh

Relegated to the background since he lost in the Lok Sabha elections of 2009, Naik had declared he would not contest again. He was, however, active in various movements. Part of the All India Discipline Committee of the BJP, he concentrated over the last five years on his pet issues — local trains in Mumbai and voters’ registration. The former NDA union minister for petroleum is said to have been high on Modi’s list for possible governors for UP. An expert on constitutional affairs and committed to the RSS ideology, Naik has been an MLA two times and an MP five times. He has two daughters, the younger helping look after his work in his former constituency in Mumbai and his office.

Balramji Dass Tandon, 86

Chhattisgarh

Tandon gets the job after being out of electoral politics for 17 years. Tandon’s son Sanjay, president of the BJP’s Chandigarh unit, had wanted the Lok Sabha ticket but the party chose Kirron Kher. After his last poll in 1997, B D Tandon was chairman of the BJP’s campaign committee in Punjab during the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and 2014. The former Punjab BJP president, an RSS member since 1946, has been an MLA six times starting 1957. “I fulfilled my responsibilities at all positions the party gave me. After I won from Amritsar four consecutive times, the then party president expressed a desire to contest from my constituency and I gave up my seat,” says Tandon.

O P Kohli, 78

Gujarat

A party foot-soldier who has stayed out of controversy, O P Kohli gets the plum post of Gujarat governor in what his seen as reward for his decades of work in the party. His last key role came in 2009, when the BJP had lost to the Congress for the third time in a row in Delhi and he was made state BJP chief. Before the governor’s posting came, he was national BJP office-in-charge at the party’s headquarters. Kohli had been the Delhi unit chief from 1991 to 1995 too. Affiliated to the party since his student years, he served as ABVP chief before becoming a teacher in Delhi University and then DUTA president. Nominated to the Rajya Sabha between 1994 and 2000.