C. H. Vijayashankar

C.​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌ H. Vijayashankar was born on 21 October 1956 in Makanoor, Haveri district, Karnataka. He began his public life with local political engagement, which coincided with a period of change in the state's political scene. In 1994, he achieved the first big success of his electoral career by getting elected to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the Hunsur constituency.

He turned his local hold and the outreach among rural and semi-urban voters into a successful career at the national level in 1998 when he won the Mysuru Lok Sabha seat. Thus, he was an MP from 1998 to 1999, and after a short break, he came back to win the same seat in 2004 again, defeating a high-profile royal-family candidate. This victory attracted a lot of attention and helped him to consolidate his position in the Mysuru-Kodagu region.

Besides his parliamentary responsibilities, he was in a state-level office: he was a cabinet minister in Karnataka holding the Forestry, Ecology & Environment portfolio between 2010 and 2011. Later, he was a member of the Karnataka Legislative Council from 2010 to 2016, during which time he actively engaged in political work on rural development, environment and issues at the constituency level.

After he had changed party affiliations several times, including a short period in the opposition and then coming back to his original party, in July 2024, he was made the Governor of Meghalaya. He transferred to the Raj Bhavan, Shillong, as the Governor, and his work started with a focus on bridging central-state cooperation, institutional stability and leveraging the development initiatives for the northeastern ​‍​‌‍​‍‌​‍​‌‍​‍‌state.