Lakshman Prasad Acharya was sworn in as the 32nd governor of Assam at the Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati on Tuesday.

Since Acharya has also been given additional charge of strife-hit Manipur, he immediately flew to Imphal after his swearing-in in Guwahati.

Sources said by giving him charge of two states, headed by BJP chief ministers, the Centre is “banking” on him to work towards starting the peace process to end the strife in Manipur at the earliest. By being in Guwahati, it will also be “convenient” for citizens/stakeholders/officials likely to be involved in the peace process for Manipur.

He replaced Gulab Chand Kataria.

Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court Justice Vijay Bishnoi administered the oath of office to the new governor of Assam.

Those in attendance included chief minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assembly speaker Biswajit Daimary and a host of ministers and MLAs.

Acharya started his career in his hometown Varanasi as a teacher in 1973 with the Bhartiya Shishu Mandir in Ramnagar. He took his first step into politics in 1990 by becoming the divisional president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the Ramnagar area.

He was elected twice as member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council (MLC) since 2015.

Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh accorded a warm welcome to Acharya in Imphal on Tuesday.