By IANS
Bangalore : Rameshwar Thakur was Tuesday sworn in as the 16th governor of Karnataka at a simple ceremony held in the glasshouse of the Raj Bhavan here.
The oath of office was administered by Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph.
The 80-year-old Thakur, who was Orissa governor till he was shifted to Karnataka, took the oath in English.
Outgoing governor T.N. Chaturvedi, state chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, his deputy B.S. Yediyurappa, opposition leader N. Dharam Singh, state Congress unit president Mallikarjun Kharge and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda were among the dignitaries present on the occasion.
Later, Gowda was seen interacting with Thakur on the lawns of Raj Bhavan in the company of Chaturvedi, Kumaraswamy, Yediyurappa and other leaders.
Though Thakur did not interact with the media, he was heard telling Gowda that he was not new to Karnataka, as his association with the state, especially Bangalore dated back to the seventies when he was a visiting professor at the Institute for Socio-Economic Change (ISEC) on the outskirts of the city.
“I had a long stint at ISEC in the company of then social scientist V.K.R.V. Rao, who founded the institute. I still have pleasant memories of my stay in this garden city,” Thakur recalled.
A freedom fighter who participated in the Quit India Movement and went to jail in the mid-forties, the octogenarian governor was the union minister of state for finance and rural development in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government between 1991-96.
Thakur was also associated with the print media as chairman of the National Herald group of publications in the eighties.
Kumaraswamy briefed the new governor on the affairs of the state and the measures taken by his government to provide relief to the flood-hit areas.
The chief minister, however, regretted the central government did not consult the state government before the appointment of Thakur.
“Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil called last week only to inform about Thakur being shifted from Orissa to Karnataka. There was no prior consultation with me on this,” Kumaraswamy told reporters at Hunachagi village in Gulbarga district Monday.