NEW DELHI, May 13, dhns: President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday appointed Droupadi Murmu as governor of Jharkhand, J P Rajkhowa as governor of Arunachal Pradesh, Tathagata Roy as governor of Tripura and V Shanmuganathan as governor of Meghalaya.

The President also transferred Arunachal Pradesh Governor Lt Gen (retd) Nirbhay Sharma to Mizoram, while Jharkhand Governor Dr Syed Ahmed was shifted to Manipur. Both Sharma and Ahmed were UPA appointees.

Murmu (56), a former MLA and minister in Odisha, belongs to the Santhal tribe and became a prominent face in the state BJP after starting her career as a clerical staff in the government.

Rajkhowa (71), former Assam chief secretary who is credited for coining the word “Seven Sisters” to refer to north-eastern states, is being sent to Arunachal as the government feels that his experience in the north-east would be helpful in dealing with the situation there.

Engineer-turned-politician Roy (70) is presently a member of the BJP National Executive.

Shanmuganathan was the additional office secretary of the BJP parliamentary party executive committee.