A former bureaucrat, Rajiv Mehrishi, is likely to be appointed as the new governor of Jammu and Kashmir in place of NN Vohra within a few days when the Amarnath pilgrimage concludes. He is currently the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
Vohra, who was appointed Governor during the UPA government, continued to hold the office for two terms even after the Modi government came to power in 2014. He had held the important positions of home and defence secretaries.
Name of Mehrishi for the post was in circulation as he is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also has in-depth knowledge of Kashmir affairs as he held the post of home secretary at the Centre for nearly two years after the NDA government came to power.
Reports of change of the governor were circulating since this morning with Mehrishi as the frontrunner. He belonged to the Rajasthan cadre and was chief secretary before the Modi government brought him to New Delhi as finance secretary. However, after his retirement in 2015, he was given charge of home secretary for a period of two years and thereafter was appointed Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).
Vohra had some time ago requested Home Minister Rajnath Singh to relieve him from the post but he was reportedly asked to continue till some suitable substitute was found.
A retired Army general, Ata Hasnain, was earlier in the race for the post of governor, but he has now been appointed chancellor of the Central University of Kashmir.