List of governors of Odisha

Governor of Odisha
Emblem of Odisha
Incumbent Kambhampati Hari Babu since 3 January 2025 (2025-01-03)
Style	His Excellency
Residence	Raj Bhavan, Bhubaneswar Raj Bhavan, Puri
Appointer	President of India
Term length	At the pleasure of the president
Inaugural holder	Sir John Austen Hubback
Formation	1 April 1936;89 years ago (1936-04-01)
Website	rajbhavanodisha.gov.in

The governor of Odisha is the head of the Indian state of Odisha. 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 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 whereas they act as the nominal head. The current incumbent is Kambhampati Hari Babu since 3 January 2025. There are 36 governors if counted with 8 acting governors and 1 additional charge.

List

Legend

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

Color key

•    indicates acting/additional charge

#	Portrait	Name (lifespan) Previous Office	Home state	Tenure in office			Appointer (President)
				From	To	Time in office
Orissa Province, British India (1936 - 1947)
1		Sir John Austen Hubback (1878–1968)	United Kingdom	1 April 1936	11 August 1938	2 years, 132 days	Freeman Thomas (Viceroy)
-		George Townsend Boag CSI ICS (1884–1969) (Acting)		11 August 1938	7 December 1938	118 days	Victor Hope (Viceroy)
(1)		Sir John Austen Hubback (1878–1968)		8 December 1938	31 March 1941	2 years, 113 days (Total 4 years, 245 days)
2		Sir Hawthorne Lewis KCIE ICS (1888–1970)		1 April 1941	31 March 1946	4 years, 364 days
3		Chandulal Madhavlal Trivedi CIE OBE ICS (1893–1980) Secretary in the War Depatment	Gujarat	1 April 1946	14 August 1947	1 year, 135 days	Archibald Wavell (Viceroy)
Orissa Province, Dominion of India (1947 - 1950)
4		Kailash Nath Katju (1887–1968) Minister in United Provinces Provisional Government	Central Provinces and Berar	15 August 1947	20 June 1948 [§] [α]	310 days	Lord Mountbatten (Governor-General)
5		Asaf Ali (1888–1953) Ambassador of India to the United States	United Provinces	21 June 1948	25 January 1950	1 year, 218 days
Orissa State, Republic of India (After 1950)
(5)		Asaf Ali (1888–1953) Ambassador of India to the United States	United Provinces	26 January 1950	5 May 1951	1 year, 99 days	Lord Mountbatten (Governor-General)
–		V. P. Menon CSI CIE (1893–1965) Secretary in the Ministry of the States (Acting)	Madras State	6 May 1951	17 July 1951	72 days	Rajendra Prasad (Acting)
(5)		Asaf Ali (1888–1953) Ambassador of India to the United States	United Provinces	18 July 1951	6 June 1952	324 days (Total 3 years, 276 days)
6		Justice (Retd) Saiyid Fazl Ali (1886–1959) Judge of the Supreme Court of India	Bihar	7 June 1952	9 February 1954	1 year, 247 days	Rajendra Prasad
7		P. S. Kumaraswamy Raja (1898–1957) Chief Minister of Madras State	Madras State	10 February 1954	11 September 1956	2 years, 214 days
8		Bhim Sen Sachar (1894–1978) Chief Minister of Punjab	Punjab	12 September 1956	31 July 1957 [§] [β]	322 days
9		Yashwant Narayan Sukthankar CIE ICS (Retd) (1897–1973) Cabinet Secretary of India	Bombay State	31 July 1957	15 September 1962	5 years, 46 days
10		Ajudhia Nath Khosla (1892–1984) MP from Rajya Sabha	Punjab	16 September 1962	5 August 1966	3 years, 323 days	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
–		Justice Khaleel Ahmed (1907–his death) Chief Justice of Orissa High Court (Acting)	Bihar	5 August 1966	11 September 1966	37 days
(10)		Ajudhia Nath Khosla (1892–1984) MP from Rajya Sabha	Punjab	12 September 1966	30 January 1968	1 year, 140 days (Total 5 years, 98 days)
11		Shaukatullah Shah Ansari (1908–1972) MP from Bidar, Karnataka	Uttar Pradesh	31 January 1968	20 September 1971	3 years, 232 days	Zakir Husain
–		Sardar Jogendra Singh (1903–1979) MP from Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh (Acting)	Uttar Pradesh	20 September 1971	30 June 1972 [§] [γ]	284 days	V. V. Giri
–		Justice Gati Krushna Misra (d. 2009) Chief Justice of Orissa High Court (Acting)	Orissa	1 July 1972	8 November 1972	130 days
12		Basappa Danappa Jatti (1912–2002) Chief Minister of Mysore State	Karnataka	8 November 1972	20 August 1974 [‡] [δ]	1 year, 285 days
–		Justice Gati Krushna Misra (d. 2009) Chief Justice of Orissa High Court (Acting)	Orissa	21 August 1974	25 October 1974	65 days (Total 195 days)
13		Akbar Ali Khan (1899–1994) Governor of Uttar Pradesh	Andhra Pradesh	25 October 1974	17 April 1976 [‡]	1 year, 175 days	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
–		Justice Siba Narain Sankar (1915–his death) Chief Justice of Orissa High Court (Acting)	Delhi	17 April 1976	7 February 1977	296 days
14		Harcharan Singh Brar (1922–2009) MLA from Punjab	Punjab	7 February 1977	22 September 1977 [§] [ε]	227 days
15		Bhagwat Dayal Sharma (1918–1993) Chief Minister of Haryana	Haryana	23 September 1977	30 April 1980 [§] [ζ]	2 years, 220 days	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
16		C. M. Poonacha (1910–1990) Governor of Madhya Pradesh	Karnataka	30 April 1980	30 September 1980	153 days
–		Justice Sukanta Kishore Ray (1918–2002) Chief Justice of Orissa High Court (Acting)	Orissa	1 October 1980	3 November 1980	33 days
(16)		C. M. Poonacha (1910–1990) Governor of Madhya Pradesh	Karnataka	4 November 1980	24 June 1982	1 year, 232 days
–		Justice Ranganath Misra (1926–2012) Chief Justice of Orissa High Court (Acting)	Orissa	25 June 1982	31 August 1982	67 days
(16)		C. M. Poonacha (1910–1990) Governor of Madhya Pradesh	Karnataka	1 September 1982	17 August 1983	350 days (Total 3 years, 5 days)	Zail Singh
17		Bishambhar Nath Pande (1906–1998) MP from Rajya Sabha,Uttar Pradesh	Uttar Pradesh	17 August 1983	20 November 1988 [‡]	5 years, 95 days
–		Saiyid Nurul Hasan (1921–1993) Governor of West Bengal until 20 March 1989	Uttar Pradesh	20 November 1988	20 March 1989	1 year, 78 days	Ramaswamy Venkataraman
18				20 March 1989	6 February 1990 [§] [η]
19		Yagya Dutt Sharma (1922–1996) MP from Gurdaspur, Punjab	Punjab	7 February 1990	1 February 1993 [‡]	2 years, 360 days
–		Saiyid Nurul Hasan (1921–1993) Governor of West Bengal (Additional Charge)	Uttar Pradesh	1 February 1993	31 May 1993	119 days (Total 1 year, 197 days)	Shankar Dayal Sharma
20		B. Satya Narayan Reddy (1927–2012) Governor of Uttar Pradesh	Andhra Pradesh	1 June 1993	17 June 1995	2 years, 16 days
21		Gopala Ramanujam (1915–2001) Governor of Goa	Tamil Nadu	18 June 1995	30 January 1997	1 year, 226 days
–		K. V. Raghunatha Reddy (1924–2002) Governor of West Bengal (Additional Charge)	Andhra Pradesh	31 January 1997	12 February 1997	12 days
(21)		Gopala Ramanujam (1915–2001) Governor of Goa	Tamil Nadu	13 February 1997	13 December 1997	303 days (Total 2 years, 164 days)
–		K. V. Raghunatha Reddy (1924–2002) Governor of West Bengal (Additional Charge)	Andhra Pradesh	13 December 1997	27 April 1998	135 days	K. R. Narayanan
–		C. Rangarajan (born 1932) Governor of Andhra Pradesh (Additional Charge)	Tamil Nadu	27 April 1998	14 November 1999	1 year, 201 days
22		M. M. Rajendran IAS (Retd) (1935–2023) Chief Secretary of Tamil Nadu	Tamil Nadu	15 November 1999	17 November 2004	5 years, 2 days
23		Rameshwar Thakur (1925–2015) Union Minister of State in Finance	Jharkhand	18 November 2004	21 August 2007 [§] [θ]	2 years, 276 days	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
24		Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare (1928–2024) MP From Rajya Sabha,Maharastra	Maharashtra	21 August 2007	20 March 2013	5 years, 211 days	Pratibha Patil
25		S. C. Jamir (born 1931) Chief Minister of Nagaland	Nagaland	21 March 2013	20 March 2018	4 years, 364 days	Pranab Mukherjee
–		Satya Pal Malik (1946–2025) Governor of Bihar (Additional Charge)	Uttar Pradesh	21 March 2018	28 May 2018	68 days	Ram Nath Kovind
26		Ganeshi Lal (born 1941) MLA from Haryana	Haryana	29 May 2018	30 October 2023	5 years, 154 days
27		Raghubar Das (born 1955) Chief Minister of Jharkhand	Jharkhand	31 October 2023	2 January 2025 [‡]	1 year, 63 days	Droupadi Murmu
28		Kambhampati Hari Babu (born 1953) Governor of Mizoram	Andhra Pradesh	3 January 2025	Incumbent	260 days

1. Transferred as the Governor of West Bengal
2. Transferred as the Governor of Andhra Pradesh
3. Transferred as the Governor of Rajasthan
4. Resigned to become the Vice President of India
5. Transferred as the Governor of Haryana
6. Transferred as the Governor of Madhya Pradesh
7. Transferred as the Governor of West Bengal
8. Transferred as the Governor of Karnataka

Timeline

Timeline of Odisha governors

See also

• Government of Odisha
• Governors of states of India
• List of governors of Bihar and Orissa Province
• List of current Indian governors

External links

• "Introduction". Raj Bhavan of Odisha. (Governor's Official Residence)