Telangana and Puducherry Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan resigns; might be fielded as a BJP candidate

Chennai/Hyderabad: Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who also holds additional charge as L-G of Puducherry, on Monday resigned from her post for a second innings in electoral politics.

Soundararajan sent her resignation to President Draupadi Murumu on Monday, the Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad said in a statement. Her resignation is significant as it comes two days before the filing of nominations for Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Puducherry begins on Wednesday.

The former governor, who steered the BJP in Tamil Nadu through difficult times when no party allied with it for elections, will contest the Lok Sabha polls, sources told DH.

She might enter the electoral fray from Chennai (South) or Tirunelveli.

Soundararajan, who lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to DMK’s Kanimozhi Karunanidhi by a wide margin from Thoothukudi in southern Tamil Nadu, was appointed as the Governor of Telangana in September the same year.

In February 2021, she was given the additional charge of L-G of Puducherry, after incumbent Kiran Bedi resigned. For the past three years, Soundararajan spent maximum time in Puducherry rather than Hyderabad.

Soundararajan, daughter of veteran Congressman Kumari Ananthan, joined the BJP in the 1990s despite opposition from her father. She was associated with the BJP for over two decades before she was sent to Telangana as Governor.

Hailing from the influential Nagar community, Soundararajan was Tamil Nadu BJP chief from 2014 to 2019.

This is not the first time that a Governor has resigned to take a plunge into politics — Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan had quit in 2019 to take on Congress’ Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram but lost the polls.