The governor swaps that left people asking what BJP is really planning

On the evening of March 5, President Droupadi Murmu made a slew of gubernatorial appointments. The change of guard in the West Bengal Raj Bhavan, where CV Ananda Bose was replaced with Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi, dominated prime time news. It even momentarily drew attention away from the political cacophony in adjoining Bihar over Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s decision to move to the Rajya Sabha.

What drowned out in the news cycle buzzing with these developments was the curiously abrupt end of Bihar Governor Arif Mohammed Khan’s tenure. Yet, in Bihar, where even the most inconsequential political activity feverishly agitates the rumour mill, the sudden replacement of Khan with Lt General (retired) Syed Ata Hasnain within hours of Nitish's unexpected Rajya Sabha nomination has forced many to wonder if these events unfolded by coincidence or were designed with speculations fast gaining ground that something more sinister is afoot.

Curious exits and transfers

In December 2024, when Khan was assigned to the Raj Bhavan in Patna, he had become, until then, the only person other than BJP leader Anandiben Patel to be retained as Governor beyond five years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dispensation — a distinction later equalled by RN Ravi.

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Bose’s sudden resignation and Ravi’s transfer from Chennai to Kolkata has justifiably piqued the interests of politicians and political observers alike in the two states and beyond.

As Governors, Bose in Bengal and Ravi in Tamil Nadu had tumultuous relations with Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin, respectively. Bose’s final months in office, though, had seen a slight thaw in his strained ties with Mat. His replacement just ahead of the West Bengal Assembly polls with a brazenly confrontational and obstructionist Ravi has, expectedly, triggered a strong backlash not just from the Trinamool chief but also the Congress and the Left parties in the state, with each speculating over the Centre’s nefarious motives behind the rejig.

Khan’s abrupt departure, however, tickles curiosity for different reasons. His stint as Kerala Governor was peppered with instances of him creating hurdles in the legislative and administrative agenda of the state government, pushing the Centre’s agenda, maligning the BJP’s political rivals and so on — much like Bose, Ravi or other Modi-era Governors in Opposition-ruled states. In contrast, Khan’s posting in Bihar, where he took charge last January, had been one of quiet behind-the-scenes manoeuvres and visible bonhomie with the ruling NDA government.

Calculated Bihar posting

Back in December 2024, when the President reassigned Khan to the Raj Bhavan in Patna, many believed it was the BJP’s way of reaching out to the state’s sizeable Muslim community, given that Assembly elections in Bihar were due in October the following year. The facade didn’t hold for long. Six months later, the Election Commission announced its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Bihar’s electoral rolls and the community most inconvenienced — and demonised — were the state’s Muslims.

In retrospect, leaders from Bihar, particularly those from the JD(U), suggest Khan’s move to Bihar was to ensure smooth relations with — and the occasional Machiavellian manipulation of — Nitish Kumar. The relations between Khan and Nitish, as JD(U) veteran KC Tyagi recalls, go back “at least four decades”. While the duo served together as ministers in then Prime Minister VP Singh’s government in 1990, Tyagi says their acquaintance dated back to the late 1970s when Khan, having already been elected an MLA in Uttar Pradesh as a candidate of Chaudhary Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Kranti Dal in 1977, transitioned to the Janata Party, of which Nitish Kumar was then a rising youth leader in Bihar.

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Another JD(U) leader who did not wish to be named said Khan, who hopped from the Janata Party to the Congress, Janata Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party between 1980 and the late 2000s with spells of both political success and wilderness before finally settling in the BJP post-2014, maintained cordial terms with Nitish throughout, which, perhaps, “Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah felt would come make him a good political and administrative bridge between the BJP and Nitish” ahead of last year’s assembly polls.

Over the past 15 months of his stint as Bihar Governor, the JD(U) leader quoted anonymously above said, “Khan gave no reason to the BJP leadership to believe that he wasn’t discharging his intended role properly,” which makes the abrupt end of his term both “surprising and suspicious”.

Hasnain’s appointment under scrutiny

If Khan’s hasty departure has raised suspicions, the naming of his successor has triggered a wave of concern among sections of Bihar’s political stakeholders, including those in the JD(U).

“Hasnain isn’t just another Army officer or bureaucrat being rewarded with a Governor’s post for his ideological alignment with the BJP. He has long been associated with the Vivekananda Foundation (of which National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is the founder director) and his expertise lies in armed conflict, counter-insurgency and military strategy. Like Khan, he is also the kind of individual from his community who the BJP considers a ‘good Muslim’ — at ease with Hindutva, vocal about reforms within the Muslim community and unfailingly flattering towards Modi and the BJP,” a Congress MP from Bihar told The Federal.

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The MP added, “can it be a mere coincidence that his appointment comes just when the BJP’s ambition of securing the CM’s chair in Patna is about to come true and, more importantly, when Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and other BJP leaders have repeatedly used Bihar to abuse Muslims as ghuspaithiya (infiltrators) and claim that illegal Bangladeshi have settled in huge numbers in Bihar, Jharkhand and Bengal even though the Bihar SIR and home ministry’s own records prove otherwise.”

Among the rumours that Khan’s exit and Hasnain’s arrival have triggered in Bihar’s already charged political landscape is that the Centre is planning “something radical” in the state’s Muslim-dominated Seemanchal districts of Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar and Araria, which border Nepal and Bengal. The Centre subsequently denied this speculation categorically, terming it 'fake news'.

‘A coordinated plan’

There was hushed frenetic speculation in Bihar that the Centre could be looking to set up a major military base in Seemanchal, for which Hasnain’s expertise as a decorated Army veteran would prove useful.

Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, the independent MP from Purnea, as publicly expressed a far more alarmist view. Dubbing the appointment of Hasnain as Bihar Governor and Ravi as his Bengal counterpart part of a “coordinated plan”, Yadav alleged that the Centre plans to have President’s Rule imposed in Bengal through Ravi, who is already notoriously committed to the BJP’s political vision and mission, and simultaneously have a “resolution” passed in the Bihar assembly, where the NDA already enjoys a brute majority for “carving Seemanchal out of Bihar and merging it with Bengal’s Muslim-dominated North Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad and adjoining districts to create a new Union Territory”.

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An RJD leader from the Seemanchal region told The Federal that though Yadav has a “tendency to exaggerate things with the intent to draw attention or create panic”, there could be “some truth to what he is saying”.

Persistent rumours

“For the last several months, we have been hearing gossip in political circles that the BJP is waiting for the right moment to try something radical in Bihar. One of the rumours that has been doing the rounds is that they want to separate Seemanchal from Bihar and merge it with the Siliguri Corridor (popularly called the Chicken’s Neck) and Dinajpur to create a Union Territory and pass it off as a national security necessity to protect India, the region from China and any illegal immigrants. We used to dismiss these rumours, but the manner in which Nitish is being pushed out of Bihar and how the new Governor has been brought in at the same time, this is what everyone is talking about now,” the RJD leader added.

The PIB 'fact check' and 'fake news alert' on Saturday (Match 7) did set some rumours to rest. But few believe that Khan’s departure and Hasnain’s arrival, coinciding with Nitish’s imminent move to New Delhi and the likely anointment of Bihar’s first BJP CM, are all part of an unrelated political and administrative rejig. Is there really more than meets the eye?