The governor of Karnataka, formerly governor of Mysore, is the constitutional head of the Indian state of Karnataka. The governor is appointed by the president of India, and holds office at the president's pleasure. The governor is de jure head of the government of Karnataka; all its executive actions are taken in the governor's name. However, the governor must act on the advice of the popularly elected council of ministers, headed by the chief minister of Karnataka, which thus holds de facto executive authority in the state. The Constitution of India also empowers the governor to act upon his or her own discretion, such as the ability to appoint or dismiss a ministry, recommend President's rule, or reserve bills for the president's assent. Over the years, the exercise of these discretionary powers have given rise to conflict between the elected chief minister and the central government–appointed governor.Durga Das Basu. Introduction to the Constitution of India. 1960. 20th edition, 2011 reprint. LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur. . p. 237, 241–44. Note: although the text talks about Indian state governments in general, it applies for the specific case of Karnataka as well.
Since 1956, eighteen people have served as the governor of Mysore (as the state was known before 1 November 1973) and Karnataka. The first was Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, who was the state's Rajpramukh from 1950 to 1956. A majority of Karnataka's governors have been politicians (ten), another five have been civil servants. V. V. Giri went on become the fourth president of India, and Gopal Swarup Pathak the country's fourth vice president. Smt V. S. Ramadevi was the first and only woman governor of Karnataka (1999–2002) and also holds the record of first woman chief election commissioner in india.
List
Legend Died in office Transferred Resigned/removed
Color key indicates acting/additional charge
Governor of Mysore State (19561973)
# Portrait Name(borndied) Home state Tenure in office Appointer(President) From To Time in office 1 Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Mysore State 1956 1964 Rajendra Prasad 2 S. M. Shrinagesh Maharashtra 1964 1965 Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan 3 V. V. Giri Madras 1965 1967 4 Gopal Swarup Pathak Uttar Pradesh 1967 1969 Zakir Husain A. R. Somanath Iyer(Acting) Mysore State 1969 1969 V. V. Giri 5 Dharma Vira Uttar Pradesh 1969 1972 6 Mohan Lal Sukhadia Rajasthan 1972 1973
Governor of Karnataka (1973present)
# Portrait Name(borndied) Home state Tenure in office Appointer(President) From To Time in office 1 Mohan Lal Sukhadia Rajasthan 1973 1976 V. V. Giri 2 Uma Shankar Dikshit Uttar Pradesh 1976 1977 Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed 3 Govind Narain Uttar Pradesh 1977 1983 Neelam Sanjiva Reddy 4 Ashoknath Banerji West Bengal 1983 1988 Zail Singh 5 Pendekanti Venkatasubbaiah Andhra Pradesh 1988 1990 Ramaswamy Venkataraman 6 Shanmughasundaram Mohan(Acting) Tamil Nadu 1990 1990 7 Bhanu Pratap Singh Uttar Pradesh 1990 1991 8Khurshed Alam KhanUttar Pradesh 1991 1999 9 V. S. Ramadevi Andhra Pradesh 1999 2002 K. R. Narayanan 10 T. N. Chaturvedi Uttar Pradesh 2002 2007 11 Rameshwar Thakur Jharkhand 2007 2009 Pratibha Patil 12 H. R. Bhardwaj Punjab 2009 2014 13 Konijeti Rosaiah(Additional Charge) Andhra Pradesh 2014 2014 Pranab Mukherjee 14 Vajubhai Vala Gujarat 2014 2021 15 Thawar Chand Gehlot Madhya Pradesh 2021 Incumbent Ram Nath Kovind
Oath emba naanú, Devara hesarinalli pramana maaduttene enendra, naanú dhrudhavagi matthu nishtha-purvakavagi ____ (State Name, e.g., Karnataka) rajyada raajyapala huddethiya karthavyagalannú shraddheyinda nirvahisuttene matthu nanna purna samarthyadinda samvidhana matthu kanoonannú kapaduttene, samrakshisuttene matthu rakshisuttene haagú naanú ____ (State Name) rajyada janara seve matthu kalyanakkagi nannannú naanu samarpisikolluttene." References
External links
Succession of Governors Karnataka Raj Bhavan Website