Tamilisai Soundararajan: Am thankful to PM Modi, BJP leaders for appointing me Telangana Governor

Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who was appointed on Sunday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders for providing her with the opportunity.

"I am thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP working president JP Nadda for giving me this opportunity. I joined as an ordinary karyakarta (worker), I take this as an opportunity to serve my nation," said Soundararajan while speaking to ANI.

"I was elevated as the State President and now I have been elevated as the Governor of the state. I am thankful to each and every one. My party has endorsed my work. Apart from that, I take this as an opportunity to serve the nation," she added.

An official communique from Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday said, "The President of India is pleased to make Tamilisai Soundararajan as Governor of Telangana."

The appointment will take effect from the date she will assume the charge of the office.

Soundararajan will replace ESL Narasimhan, who assumed the office on June 2, 2014. She would be the first lady Governor to be appointed from Tamil Nadu.

A physician-turned-politician, Soundararajan entered politics in the year 1999. She started her political career as South Chennai District Medical Wing Secretary in the same year and held various positions in the BJP.

The daughter of former Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Kumari Ananthan, she was also appointed as chief of the Tamil Nadu BJP in 2014 following the resignation of Pon Radhakrishnan from the post.

She hails from a family of Congress leaders and was the first woman to head the Tamil Nadu unit of the BJP.