With the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal barely a few weeks away, West Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose dodged a bullet on Thursday by stepping down from his position, saying that he had been serving in his post for over three years.
Minutes after Bose stepped down, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee declared in an X post that R.N. Ravi from Tamil Nadu was to be "shifted" to her state as the governor.
Ravi has been having a running battle with the DMK government in Tamil Nadu. His tenure in Tamil Nadu since 2022 has been marred with several face-offs with the ruling government—right from his opinion on changing the name of the state from Tamil Nadu to Tamilagam, walking out of the assembly in a huff after insisting that the national anthem be played alongside the Tamil anthem, and skipping portions of his customary address in the Assembly—that have time and again caused feuds.
Ravi's frequent visits to temples across the state, his opinion on Sanatana Dharma in a state that speaks of social justice, not approving the crucial bills passed in the State Assembly, and the DMK's fight against Ravi in the Supreme Court have always made apparent the friction between Ravi and CM Stalin.
His actions against minister K. Ponmudy and the dismissal of minister V. Senthil Balaji from the cabinet without consulting the CM's were other hardline moves he played against the Stalin government.
However, if given additional charge as the West Bengal governor, it remains to be seen if he will continue the same politics against Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee as well. Bose's several run-ins with the state government and counter-narratives by the DMK against the BJP have ensured that he has had a rollercoaster ride in Tamil Nadu over the past four years.