Mumbai, July 19 (IANS) S.C. Jamir was sworn in as the new governor of Maharashtra by Chief Justice of Bombay High Court Swatanter Kumar at Raj Bhavan here Saturday. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, his cabinet colleagues, city sheriff Indu Shahani, city police commissioner Hasan Gafoor, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command Admiral J.S. Bedi, senior civil and military officials were present.

The Indian Navy accorded a ceremonial guard of honour to Jamir on the occasion. The governor’s wife Alemla Jamir and the chief minister’s wife Vaishali Deshmukh were present.

Jamir, 77, brings with him rich political and administrative experience over the past five decades. He plunged into active politics in his student days and became the president of the Students’ Christian Movement while he was studying for his law degree at Allahabad University in 1954-57.

In 1960, he was a member of the delegation that met the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru for political talks.

It ultimately resulted in the creation of Nagaland as the 16th state of India and Jamir is regarded as one of the architects of modern Nagaland.

The next year, Jamir was elected as the first Lok Sabha Member from the newly carved state of Nagaland. Over the years, he served as minister at the centre, handling portfolios like railways, labour and rehabilitation, community development and cooperation, food and agriculture.

In 1971, he moved to state politics and was elected to the Nagaland legislative assembly and since then never lost any assembly elections. He was the state Congress president for eleven years and also served as its longest ruling chief minister of the north eastern state of India.

Jamir was appointed Goa governor four years ago and held additional charge of Maharashtra for the past over four months since March 9 when his predecessor S.M. Krishna resigned from the post to return to active politics in Karnataka.