In a record, the Narendra Modi government has appointed the maximum number of women as governor and lieutenant government since he came to power in 2014. The Modi government has appointed eight women as governors and LGs, since 2014, which is the highest number so far.

The women appointed as governors and LGs since 2014 include, Mridula Sinha, Draupadi Murmu, Najma Heptulla, Anandiben Patel, Baby Rani Maurya, Anusuiya Uikey, Tamilsai Soundarajan, and Kiran Bedi.

The previous record was made in the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, which had appointed six women as governors and LGs.

The NDA government has picked five women members from the SC, ST, and OBC communities as governors and LGs.

The Modi government, a day ahead of the cabinet reshuffle, appointed eight new governors, which saw the transfer of Thaawarchand Gehlot to Karnataka. He was earlier the union minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

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Appointment of women governors by previous governments

The Jawarharlal Nehru government had appointed three women governors, which included Sarojini Naidu, Padmaja Naidu, and Vijayalakshmi Pandit (Nehru’s sister). Meanwhile, under the Morarji Desai government, only two women governors, Sharda Mukherjee and Jothi Venkatachalam, were appointed. 

Under Rajiv Gandhi, three women were appointed, namely Kumudben Joshi, Ram Dulari Sinha, and Sarla Grewal meanwhile under the VP Singh government, one woman, Chadrawati was appointed. 

Sheila Kaul and Rajendra Kumari were appointed when Narshimha Rao was the prime minister while Fathima Beevi, VS Ramadevi, Rajani Rai were appointed during the tenures of HD Deve Gowda, IK Gujral, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee, respectively. 

Pratibha Patil, Prabha Rau, Margaret Alva, Kamla Beniwal, Urmila Singh, and Sheila Dikshit were appointed during the UPA government.