Thiruvananthapuram: Om Prakash Mathur was sworn in as the 29th governor of Keralam at a ceremony held at Lok Bhavan on Friday. Chief Justice of Kerala High Court Soumen Sen administered the oath in the presence of chief minister V D Satheesan.Mathur (74), who was the governor of Sikkim, is a senior BJP functionary from Bedal village in Pali district, Rajasthan. Born on Jan 2, 1952, he graduated from Rajasthan University. Mathur began his public life as an RSS pracharak in 1972.He joined and worked in RSS and BJP along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the seventies. After working in different capacities in RSS, he moved to BJP around two and a half years after Modi joined BJP. He has served in several organisational roles, including BJP general secretary in Rajasthan, BJP national vice-president, national secretary and national general secretary. He was imprisoned for 11 months during the Emergency.Mathur has held key responsibilities in BJP across several states, including Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. He was among the functionaries who played a role in BJP’s win in Chhattisgarh in 2023.He served two terms as a Rajya Sabha member from 2008 to 2022. He was a member of BJP national executive from 1989 to 2024.
