List of governors of Tamil Nadu

Governor of Tamil Nadu
Tamiḻnāṭu Āḷunar
Emblem of Tamil Nadu
Incumbent R. N. Ravi since 18 September 2021
Style	His Excellency
Status	Head of State
Reports to	President of India Government of India
Residence	Raj Bhavan, Chennai (primary) Raj Bhavan, Ooty (summer)
Appointer	President of India
Term length	Five years Renewable
Inaugural holder	Archibald Edward Nye (1946–48)
Formation	6 May 1946 (1946-05-06)
Salary	₹350,000 (US$4,900) (per month)
Website	www.tnrajbhavan.gov.in

The state of Tamil Nadu in India has had 26 Governors since 1946

The governor of Tamil Nadu is the head of state of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The governors have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the President of India at central level. They exist in the state appointed by the President of India for a term of 5 years and they are not local to the state that they are appointed to govern. The factors based on which the President evaluates the candidates is not mentioned in the constitution. The governor acts as the nominal head whereas the real power lies with the chief minister of the state and their council of ministers.

The current incumbent is R. N. Ravi since 18 September 2021.

Powers and functions

See also: Governors of India § Powers and functions

The Governor enjoys many different types of powers:

• Executive powers related to administration, appointments and removals,
• Legislative powers related to lawmaking and the state legislature, that is Vidhan Sabha or Vidhan Parishad, and
• Discretionary powers to be carried out according to the discretion of the Governor.

Governors

Madras Presidency and Madras State

Headquartered in Fort St. George, Madras Presidency was a province of British India. It comprised present-day Tamil Nadu, the Malabar region of North Kerala, the coastal and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, and the Bellary, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi districts of Karnataka. It was established in 1653 to be the headquarters of the English settlements on the Coromandel Coast. After India's independence in 1947, Madras State, the precursor to the present day state of Tamil Nadu, was carved out of Madras Presidency. It comprised present-day Tamil Nadu and parts of present-day Jack Barlow, Karnataka and Kerala.

Tabular

#	Name	Took Office	Left Office	Term
1	Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Edward Nye	6 May 1946	7 September 1948	1
2	Maharaja Sir Krishna Kumarasinhji Bhavsinhji	7 September 1948	12 March 1952	1
3	Sri Prakasa	12 March 1952	10 December 1956	1
4	A. J. John	10 December 1956	30 September 1957	1
-	Pakala Venkata Rajamannar (acting)	1 October 1957	24 January 1958	1
5	Bhishnuram Medhi	24 January 1958	4 May 1964	1
6	Maharaja Sir Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur	4 May 1964	24 November 1964	1
-	P. Chandra Reddy (acting)	24 November 1964	7 December 1965	1
(6)	Maharaja Sir Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur	7 December 1965	28 June 1966	1
7	Sardar Ujjal Singh (acting till 16 June 1967)	28 June 1966	14 January 1969	1

Graphical

<timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late

DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1946 till:1972 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1946

Colors =

 id:canvas      value:rgb(0.97,0.97,0.97)
 id:PA   value:blue legend: Appointed
 id:GP   value:red legend: Acting

Legend = columns:2 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100

Backgroundcolors = canvas:canvas

BarData =

 barset:TNG

PlotData=

 width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till
 barset:TNG

 from:1946 till:1948 color:PA text:"Sir Archibald Edward Nye (1946 – 1948)"
 from:1948 till:1952 color:PA text:"Maharaja Krishna Kumarasingh Bhavasingh (1948 – 1952)"
 from:1952 till:1956 color:PA text:"Sri Prakasa (1952 – 1956)"
 from:1956 till:1958 color:PA text:"A. J. John, Anaparambil (1956 – 1958)"
 from:1958 till:1958 color:GP text:"Dr. Pakala Venkata Rajamannar (1958 – 1958)"
 from:1958 till:1964 color:PA text:"Bhishnuram Medhi (1958 – 1964)"
 from:1964 till:1964 color:PA text:"Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur of Mysore (1964 – 1964)"
 from:1964 till:1965 color:GP text:"P. Chandra Reddy (1964 – 1965)"
 from:1965 till:1966 color:PA text:"Maharaja Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur of Mysore (1965 – 1966)"
 from:1966 till:1969 color:PA text:"Sardar Ujjal Singh (1966 – 1969)"

</timeline>

Tamil Nadu

Madras State was renamed as Tamil Nadu (Tamil for Tamil country) on 14 January 1969. Governors have similar powers and functions at the state level as that of the President of India at the Central government level. The Governor acts as the nominal head of the state while the Chief Ministers of the states and the Chief Minister's Council of Ministers are invested with most executive powers.

Tabular

S.No	Portrait	Name (birth–death)	Term of office			Previous post	Appointed by
1		Sardar Ujjal Singh (1895–1983)	14 January 1969	25 May 1971	2 years, 131 days	Governor of Punjab	Zakir Hussain
2		Kodardas Kalidas Shah (1908–1986)	26 May 1971	15 June 1976	5 years, 20 days	-	Varaha Venkata Giri
3		Mohan Lal Sukhadia (1916–1982)	16 June 1976	8 April 1977	296 days	Governor of Andhra Pradesh	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
-		P. Govindan Nair	9 April 1977	26 April 1977	17 days	-	Basappa Danappa Jatti
4		Prabhudas Patwari (1909–1985)	27 April 1977	26 October 1980	3 years, 182 days	Indian Lawyer
-		M. M. Ismail (1921–2005)	27 October 1980	3 November 1980	37 days	Chief Justice of Madras High Court	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
5		Sadiq Ali (1910–2001)	4 November 1980	2 September 1982	1 year, 302 days	Governor of Maharashtra
6		Sundar Lal Khurana (1918–2007)	3 September 1982	16 February 1988	5 years, 166 days	Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry	Giani Zail Singh
7		P. C. Alexander (1921–2011)	17 February 1988	23 May 1990	2 years, 95 days	I.A.S Officer	R. Venkataraman
8		Surjit Singh Barnala (1925–2017)	24 May 1990	14 February 1991	266 days	Chief Minister of Punjab
9		Bhishma Narain Singh (1933–2018)	15 February 1991	30 May 1993	2 years, 104 days	Governor of Assam
10		Marri Chenna Reddy (1919–1996)	31 May 1993	2 December 1996	3 years, 185 days	Governor of Rajasthan	Shankar Dayal Sharma
-		Krishan Kant (additional charge) (1927–2002)	2 December 1996	24 January 1997	53 days	Governor of Andhra Pradesh
11		M. Fathima Beevi (1927-)	25 January 1997	2 July 2001	4 years, 158 days	Judge of the Supreme Court of India
-		C. Rangarajan (additional charge) (1932-)	3 July 2001	17 January 2002	198 days	Governor of the Reserve Bank of India	K. R. Narayanan
12		P. S. Ramamohan Rao (1934-)	18 January 2002	2 November 2004	2 years, 289 days	I.P.S Officer	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
(8)		Surjit Singh Barnala (1925–2017)	3 November 2004	30 August 2011	6 years, 300 days	Governor of Andhra Pradesh
13		Konijeti Rosaiah (1933–2021)	31 August 2011	1 September 2016	5 years, 1 day	Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh	Pratibha Patil
-		C. Vidyasagar Rao (additional charge) (1942–)	2 September 2016	5 October 2017	1 year, 33 days	Governor of Maharashtra	Pranab Mukherjee
14		Banwarilal Purohit (1939–)	6 October 2017	17 September 2021	3 years, 346 days	Governor of Assam	Ram Nath Kovind
15		R. N. Ravi (1952–)	18 September 2021	Incumbent	2 years, 149 days	Governor of Nagaland

Graphical

<timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20 AlignBars = late

DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:1969 till:2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1969

Colors =

 id:PA   value:blue legend: Appointed
 id:GP   value:red legend: Acting

Legend = columns:2 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100

BarData =

 barset:TNG

PlotData=

 width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till
 barset:TNG

 from: 14/01/1969 till: 25/05/1971 color:PA text:"Sardar Ujjal Singh"
 from: 26/05/1971 till: 15/06/1976 color:PA text:"Kodardas Kalidas Shah"
 from: 16/06/1976 till: 08/04/1977 color:PA text:"Mohan Lal Sukhadia"
 from: 09/04/1977 till: 26/04/1977 color:GP text:"P. Govindan Nair"
 from: 27/04/1977 till: 26/10/1980 color:PA text:"Prabhudas Patwari"
 from: 27/10/1980 till: 03/11/1980 color:GP text:"M. M. Ismail"
 from: 04/11/1980 till: 02/09/1982 color:PA text:"Sadiq Ali"
 from: 03/09/1982 till: 16/02/1988 color:PA text:"Sundar Lal Khurana"
 from: 17/02/1988 till: 23/05/1990 color:PA text:"P. C. Alexander"
 from: 24/05/1990 till: 14/02/1991 color:PA text:"Surjit Singh Barnala"
 from: 15/02/1991 till: 30/05/1993 color:PA text:"Bhishma Narain Singh"
 from: 31/05/1993 till: 02/12/1996 color:PA text:"Marri Chenna Reddy"
 from: 02/12/1996 till: 24/01/1997 color:GP text:"Krishan Kant"
 from: 25/01/1997 till: 02/07/2001 color:PA text:"M. Fathima Beevi"
 from: 03/07/2001 till: 17/01/2002 color:GP text:"C. Rangarajan"
 from: 18/01/2002 till: 02/11/2004 color:PA text:"P. S. Ramamohan Rao"
 from: 03/11/2004 till: 30/08/2011 color:PA text:"Surjit Singh Barnala"
 from: 31/08/2011 till: 01/09/2016 color:PA text:"Konijeti Rosaiah"
 from: 02/09/2016 till: 05/10/2017 color:GP text:"C. Vidyasagar Rao"
 from: 06/10/2017 till: 17/09/2021 color:PA text:"Banwarilal Purohit"
 from: 18/09/2021 till: 14/02/2024 color:PA text:"R. N. Ravi"
</timeline>

Records

• Surjit Singh Barnala is the only appointed Governor to have served two terms in office (24 May 1990–15 February 1991 and 3 November 2004–31 August 2011).
• The longest term in office was that of Surjit Singh Barnala who served as the Governor for a period of almost six and a half years (3 November 2004–31 August 2011).
• The shortest term in office was that of M. M. Ismail who served as the acting Governor for a period of nine days (27 October 1980–4 November 1980).
• The longest term in office as additional in-charge was that of C. Vidyasagar Rao for a period of 1 year 1 month and 4 days (2 September 2016– 6 October 2017).

See also

• Governors of India
• Governors of Madras
• History of Tamil Nadu
• List of Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu

External links

• Official website of the Governor of Tamil Nadu