Dattatreya to take oath as HP Guv on Sep 11

Former Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya will take oath as Himachal Pradesh governor at the Raj Bhawan here on September 11, an official said.

Dattatreya, 72, will succeed Kalraj Mishra, who has been appointed as the governor of Rajasthan.

Dattatreya was supposed to take oath on September 5 but the programme changed as he wanted to attend Tamil Nadu BJP president Tamilisai Soundararajan's oath taking ceremony as Telangana Governor on September 9, Secretary to the Governor Rakesh Kanwar said.

Kanwar told PTI that Dattatreya would reach Shimla on Tuesday and take oath in a simple function at the Raj Bhawan on Wednesday.

Dattatreya was a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government in 1998 and 1999.

Born on February 26, 1947 in Hyderabad, Dattatreya was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1991, 1998, 1999 and 2014, but lost in 2004 and 2009.

After his re-election to the Lok Sabha in 2014 from Telangana, he was inducted as minister of state for labour and employment in the BJP government headed by Narendra Modi, but was later dropped from the Union cabinet.

He was denied a Lok Sabha ticket in this general election from Secunderabad, a seat he has won many times.

Outgoing Himachal Governor Kalraj Mishra will leave for Jaipur on September 7 and will take oath as Rajasthan governor on September 9, he added.

Former Union minister Mishra was sworn as Himachal governor on July 22.

Mishra, 78, had resigned from the Modi-led government as minister for micro, small and medium enterprises in 2017.

The Uttar Pradesh leader did not contest the Lok Sabha election this year.