List of governors of Bihar

The Governor of Bihar is the nominal head of the Indian state of Bihar. The governor is appointed by the President of India. Arif Mohammad Khan is the current governor of Bihar.^[1][2] Former President Zakir Husain and Ram Nath Kovind were two such governors of Bihar who succeeded on to become the President of India.

Governor of Bihar
Emblem of Bihar
Incumbent Arif Mohammad Khan since 2 January 2025
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Raj Bhavan, Patna, Bihar
Appointer	President of India
Term length	At the pleasure of the president
Inaugural holder	Jairamdas Daulatram
Formation	15 August 1947; 77 years ago (1947-08-15)
Website	governor.bih.nic.in

Location of Bihar in India.

Powers and functions

The governor has:

• 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.

See also: Powers and functions of the Governor

In his ex-officio capacity, the governor of Bihar is chancellor of the universities of Bihar (at present 12) as per the Acts of the Universities.

President Pranab Mukherjee received by Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind & Chief minister Nitish Kumar.

List

Governors of Bihar Province (1936–1947)

#	Name	Entered office	Left office
1	James David Sifton	1 April 1936	10 March 1937
2	Maurice Garnier Hallett	11 March 1937	15 May 1938
3	Thomas Alexander Stewart	15 May 1938	16 September 1938
4	Maurice Garnier Hallett	17 September 1938	5 August 1939
5	Thomas Alexander Stewart	6 August 1939	2 February 1943
6	Thomas George Rutherford	3 February 1943	6 September 1943
7	Francis Mudie	7 September 1943	23 April 1944
8	Thomas George Rutherford	24 April 1944	12 May 1946
9	Hugh Dow	13 May 1946	14 August 1947

Governors of Bihar (1947–present)

Legend

• ^† Died in office
• ^§ Transferred
• ^‡ Resigned/removed

Color key

•    indicates acting/additional charge

#	Portrait	Name (born – died)	Home state	Tenure in office			Appointer (President)
				From	To	Time in office
1		Jairamdas Daulatram (1891–1979	Maharashtra	15 August 1947	11 January 1948	149 days	Lord Mountbatten (Governor-General)
2		Madhav Shrihari Aney (1880–1968)	Maharashtra	12 January 1948	14 June 1952	4 years, 154 days
3		R. R. Diwakar (1894–1990)	Karnataka	15 June 1952	5 July 1957	5 years, 20 days	Rajendra Prasad
4		Zakir Husain (1897–1969)	Andhra Pradesh	6 July 1957	11 May 1962[‡][α]	4 years, 309 days
5		M. A. Ayyangar (1891–1978)	Andhra Pradesh	12 May 1962	6 December 1967	5 years, 208 days
6		Nityanand Kanungo (1900–1988)	Orissa	7 December 1967	20 January 1971	3 years, 44 days	Zakir Husain
–		Justice Ujjal Narayan Sinha Chief Justice, Patna High Court (Acting)	Bihar	21 January 1971	31 January 1971	10 days	V. V. Giri
7		Dev Kant Barooah (1914–1996)	Assam	1 February 1971	4 February 1973	2 years, 3 days
8		Ramchandra Dhondiba Bhandare (1916–1988)	Maharashtra	4 February 1973	15 June 1976[§][β]	3 years, 132 days
9		Jagannath Kaushal (1915–2001)	Chandigarh	16 June 1976	31 January 1979	2 years, 229 days	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
–		Justice Krishna Ballabh Narayan Singh (1922–1999) Chief Justice, Patna High Court (Acting)	Bihar	31 January 1979	19 September 1979	231 days	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
10		Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai (1921–2016)	Delhi	20 September 1979	15 March 1985	5 years, 176 days
11		Pendekanti Venkatasubbaiah (1921–1983)	Andhra Pradesh	15 March 1985	25 February 1988[§][γ]	2 years, 347 days	Zail Singh
12		Govind Narayan Singh (1920–2005)	Madhya Pradesh	26 February 1988	24 January 1989[‡]	333 days	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
–		Justice Dipak Kumar Sen (born 1927) Chief Justice, Patna High Court (Acting)	West Bengal	24 January 1989	28 January 1989	4 days
–		R. D. Pradhan IAS (Retd) (1928–2020) Governor of Arunachal Pradesh (Additional Charge)	Maharashtra	29 January 1989	2 March 1989	32 days
13		Jagannath Pahadia (1932–2021)	Rajasthan	3 March 1989	2 February 1990[‡]	336 days
–		Justice Gangadhar Ganesh Sohani Chief Justice, Patna High Court (Acting)	Madhya Pradesh	2 February 1990	16 February 1990	14 days
14		Mohammad Yunus Saleem (1912–2004)	Uttar Pradesh	16 February 1990	30 December 1990	317 days
–		B. Satya Narayan Reddy (1927–2012) Governor of Uttar Pradesh (Acting)	Andhra Pradesh	30 December 1990	8 January 1991	9 days
14		Mohammad Yunus Saleem (1912–2004)	Uttar Pradesh	9 January 1991	13 February 1991[‡]	35 days
–		B. Satya Narayan Reddy (1927–2012) Governor of Uttar Pradesh (Additional Charge)	Andhra Pradesh	14 February 1991	18 March 1991	32 days
15		Mohammad Shafi Qureshi (1928–2016)	Jammu and Kashmir	19 March 1991	13 August 1993[§][δ]	2 years, 147 days
(10)		Akhlaqur Rahman Kidwai (1921–2016)	Delhi	14 August 1993	26 April 1998	4 years, 255 days	Shankar Dayal Sharma
16		Sunder Singh Bhandari (1921–2005)	Rajasthan	27 April 1998	15 March 1999[§][ε]	322 days	K. R. Narayanan
–		Justice Brij Mohan Lal (1937–2001) Chief Justice, Patna High Court (Acting)	Delhi	15 March 1999	5 October 1999	204 days
–		Suraj Bhan (1928–2006) Governor of Uttar Pradesh (Additional Charge)	Haryana	6 October 1999	22 November 1999	47 days
17		Vinod Chandra Pande IAS (Retd) (1938–2005)	Uttar Pradesh	23 November 1999	12 June 2003[§][ζ]	3 years, 201 days
18		Justice (Retd) Mandagadde Rama Jois (1931–2021)	Karnataka	12 June 2003	31 October 2004[‡]	1 year, 141 days	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
–		Ved Marwah IPS (Retd) (1934–2020) Governor of Jharkhand (Additional Charge)	Delhi	1 November 2004	4 November 2004	3 days
19		Buta Singh (1934–2021)	Punjab	5 November 2004	29 January 2006[‡]	1 year, 85 days
–		Gopalkrishna Gandhi IAS (Retd) (born 1945) Governor of West Bengal (Additional Charge)	Delhi	31 January 2006	21 June 2006	141 days
20		R. S. Gavai (1929–2015)	Maharashtra	22 June 2006	9 July 2008[§][η]	2 years, 17 days
21		R. L. Bhatia (1920–2021)	Punjab	10 July 2008	28 June 2009	353 days	Pratibha Patil
22		Devanand Konwar (1934–2020)	Assam	29 June 2009	21 March 2013[§][θ]	3 years, 265 days
23		D. Y. Patil (born 1935)	Maharashtra	22 March 2013	26 November 2014	1 year, 249 days	Pranab Mukherjee
–		Keshari Nath Tripathi (1934–2023) Governor of West Bengal (Additional Charge)	Uttar Pradesh	27 November 2014	15 August 2015	261 days
24		Ram Nath Kovind (born 1945)	Uttar Pradesh	16 August 2015	20 June 2017[‡][ι]	1 year, 308 days
–		Keshari Nath Tripathi (1934–2023) Governor of West Bengal (Additional Charge)	Uttar Pradesh	20 June 2017	29 September 2017	101 days
25		Satya Pal Malik (1946–2025)	Uttar Pradesh	30 September 2017	22 August 2018[§][κ]	326 days	Ram Nath Kovind
26		Lalji Tandon (1935–2020)	Uttar Pradesh	23 August 2018	28 July 2019[§][λ]	339 days
27		Phagu Chauhan (born 1948)	Uttar Pradesh	29 July 2019	16 February 2023[§][μ]	3 years, 202 days
28		Rajendra Arlekar (born 1954)	Goa	17 February 2023	1 January 2025[§][η]	1 year, 319 days	Droupadi Murmu
29		Arif Mohammad Khan (born 1951)	Uttar Pradesh	2 January 2025	Incumbent	215 days

1. Resigned to become the Vice President of India
2. Transferred as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh
3. Transferred as the Governor of Karnataka
4. Transferred as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh
5. Transferred as the Governor of Gujarat
6. Transferred as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh
7. Transferred as the Governor of Kerala
8. Transferred as the Governor of Tripura
9. Resigned to become the President of India
10. Transferred as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir
11. Transferred as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh
12. Transferred as the Governor of Meghalaya

See also

• Governor (India)
• Chief Minister of Bihar
• List of governors of Bihar and Orissa Province