List of governors of Tamil Nadu

The governor enjoys many different types of powers:

• 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.

Headquartered in Fort St. George, Madras Presidency was a province of British India. It comprised present-day Tamil Nadu, the Malabar region of North Kerala, the coastal and Rayalaseema regions of Andhra Pradesh, and the Bellary, Dakshina Kannada, and Udupi districts of Karnataka. It was established in 1653 to be the headquarters of the English settlements on the Coromandel Coast. After India's independence in 1947, Madras State, the precursor to the present day state of Tamil Nadu, was carved out of Madras Presidency. It comprised present-day Tamil Nadu and parts of present-day Karnataka and Kerala.^[1]

#	Name	Portrait	Took office	Left office	Term[nb 1]
1	William Thomas Denison		18 February 1861	26 November 1863
2	Edward Maltby (acting)		26 November 1863	18 January 1864
3	William Thomas Denison		18 January 1864	27 March 1866
4	Lord Napier		27 March 1866	19 February 1872
5	Alexander John Arbuthnot (acting)		19 February 1872	15 May 1872
6	Lord Hobart		15 May 1872	29 April 1875
7	William Rose Robinson (acting)		29 April 1875	23 November 1875
8	Duke of Buckingham and Chandos		23 November 1875	20 December 1880
9	William Huddleston (acting)		24 May 1881	5 November 1881
10	Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff		5 November 1881	8 December 1886
11	Robert Bourke, Baron Connemara		8 December 1886	1 December 1890
12	John Henry Garstin		1 December 1890	23 January 1891
13	Bentley Lawley, Baron Wenlock		23 January 1891	18 March 1896
14	Arthur Elibank Havelock		18 March 1896	28 December 1900
15	Arthur Oliver Villiers-Russell, Baron Ampthill		28 December 1900	30 April 1904
16	James Thompson (acting)		30 April 1904	13 December 1904
17	Arthur Oliver Villiers-Russell, Baron Ampthill		13 December 1904	15 February 1906
18	Gabriel Stoles (acting)		15 February 1906	28 March 1906
19	Arthur Lawley, Baron Wenlock		28 March 1906	3 November 1911
20	Thomas David Gibson-Carmichael, Baron Carmichael		3 November 1911	30 March 1912
21	Sir Murray Hammick (acting)		30 March 1912	30 October 1912
22	John Sinclair, Baron Pentland		30 October 1912	29 March 1919
23	Sir Alexander Gordon Cardew		29 March 1919	10 April 1919
24	George Freeman Freeman-Thomas, Baron Willingdon		10 April 1919	12 April 1924
25	Sir P. Rajagopalachari		1920	1923
26	Lieutenant-General Sir Archibald Edward Nye[2]		6 May 1946	7 September 1948	1

#	Name	Portrait	Took office	Left office	Term[nb 1]
27	Maharaja Sir Krishna Kumarasinhji Bhavsinhji		7 September 1948	12 March 1952	1
28	Sri Prakasa		12 March 1952	10 December 1956	1
29	A. J. John		10 December 1956	30 September 1957	1
-	Pakala Venkata Rajamannar (acting)		1 October 1957	24 January 1958	1
30	Bhishnuram Medhi		24 January 1958	4 May 1964	1
31	Maharaja Sir Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur		4 May 1964	24 November 1964	1
-	P. Chandra Reddy (acting)[3]		24 November 1964	7 December 1965	1
(31)	Maharaja Sir Jayachamaraja Wodeyar Bahadur[nb 2]		7 December 1965	28 June 1966	1
32	Sardar Ujjal Singh (acting)		28 June 1966	14 January 1969	1

Madras State was renamed as Tamil Nadu (Tamil for Tamil country) on 14 January 1969. Governors have similar powers and functions at the state level as that of the President of India at the Central government level. The Governor acts as the nominal head of the state while the Chief Ministers of the states and the Chief Minister's Council of Ministers are invested with most executive powers.

No.	Name (Birth–Death)	Portrait	Home state	Term of office[4]			Previous post	Appointed by
				Assumed office	Left office	Time in office
1	Ujjal Singh (1895–1983)		Punjab	14 January 1969	25 May 1971	2 years, 131 days	Governor of Punjab	Zakir Hussain
2	K. K. Shah (1908–1986)		Gujarat	26 May 1971	15 June 1976	5 years, 20 days	–	Varahagiri Venkata Giri
3	Mohan Lal Sukhadia (1916–1982)		Rajasthan	16 June 1976	8 April 1977	296 days	Governor of Andhra Pradesh	Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed
-	P. Govindan Nair (Unknown–Unknown)(Acting)		Kerala	9 April 1977	26 April 1977	17 days	–	B. D. Jatti (Acting President)
4	Prabhudas B. Patwari (1909–1985)		Gujarat	27 April 1977	26 October 1980	3 years, 182 days	Indian Lawyer
-	M. M. Ismail (1921–2005) (Acting)		Tamil Nadu	27 October 1980	3 November 1980	37 days	Chief Justice of Madras High Court	Neelam Sanjiva Reddy
5	Sadiq Ali (1910–2001)		Rajasthan	4 November 1980	2 September 1982	1 year, 302 days	Governor of Maharashtra
6	S. L. Khurana (1918–2007)		National Capital Territory of Delhi	3 September 1982	16 February 1988	5 years, 166 days	Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry	Giani Zail Singh
7	P. C. Alexander (1921–2011)		Kerala	17 February 1988	23 May 1990	2 years, 95 days	I.A.S. Officer	R. Venkataraman
8	Surjit Singh Barnala (1925–2017)		Haryana	24 May 1990	14 February 1991	266 days	Chief Minister of Punjab
9	Bhishma Narain Singh (1933–2018)		Rajasthan	15 February 1991	30 May 1993	2 years, 104 days	Governor of Assam
10	M. Channa Reddy (1919–1996)		Andhra Pradesh	31 May 1993	2 December 1996[†]	3 years, 185 days	Governor of Rajasthan	Shanker Dayal Sharma
–	Krishan Kant (1927–2002) (Acting)		Punjab	2 December 1996	24 January 1997	53 days	Governor of Andhra Pradesh
11	M. Fathima Beevi (1927–2023)		Kerala	25 January 1997	2 July 2001	4 years, 158 days	Judge of the Supreme Court of India
-	C. Rangarajan (1932-) (Acting)		Tamil Nadu	3 July 2001	17 January 2002	198 days	Governor of the Reserve Bank of India	K. R. Narayanan
12	P. S. Ramamohan Rao (1934-)		Andhra Pradesh	18 January 2002	2 November 2004	2 years, 289 days	Director General of Andhra Pradesh Police	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
(8)	Surjit Singh Barnala (1925–2017)		Haryana	3 November 2004	30 August 2011	6 years, 300 days	Governor of Andhra Pradesh
13	Konijeti Rosaiah (1933–2021)		Andhra Pradesh	31 August 2011	1 September 2016	5 years, 1 day	Chief minister of Andhra Pradesh	Pratibha Devisingh Patil
–	C. Vidyasagar Rao (1942–)		Andhra Pradesh	2 September 2016	5 October 2017	1 year, 33 days	Governor of Maharashtra	Pranab Mukherjee
14	Banwarilal Purohit (1939–)		Rajasthan	6 October 2017	17 September 2021	3 years, 346 days	Governor of Assam	Ram Nath Kovind
15	R. N. Ravi (1952–)		Bihar	18 September 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 68 days	Governor of Nagaland

Graphical

• Surjit Singh Barnala is the only appointed Governor to have served two terms in office (24 May 1990–15 February 1991 and 3 November 2004–31 August 2011).
• The longest term in office was that of Surjit Singh Barnala who served as the Governor for a period of almost six and a half years (3 November 2004–31 August 2011).
• The shortest term in office was that of M. M. Ismail who served as the acting Governor for a period of nine days (27 October 1980–4 November 1980).
• The longest term in office as additional in-charge was that of C. Vidyasagar Rao for a period of 1 year 1 month and 4 days (2 September 2016– 6 October 2017).

• Governors of India
• History of Tamil Nadu
• List of chief ministers of Tamil Nadu
• List of colonial governors and presidents of Madras Presidency

• Official website of the Governor of Tamil Nadu