Nikhil Kumar is a former IPS officer-turned politician hailing from Bihar who was Governor of Nagaland from 2009 to 2013 and Governor of Kerala from 2013 to 2014. One of country's well knownIPS officers of 1963 batch from the AGMUT Cadre Kumar also served as DGP of the National Security Guards, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Railway Protection Force and Commissioner of Delhi Police. He was elected member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India from 2004 to 2009, representing the Aurangabad constituency in Bihar as a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) political party. He also served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology.

Hansraj Bhardwaj was an Indian politician who was Governor of Karnataka from 2009 to 2014; he also served as Governor of Kerala from 2012 until 2013. He was a member of the Indian National Congress. He holds the record of having the second longest tenure in Law Ministry since independence, after Ashoke Kumar Sen. He was the minister of state for nine years and a cabinet minister for law and justice for five years. At the end of his five-year term in 2014, Governor of Tamil Nadu, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Konijeti Rosaiah replaced Bharadwaj as Governor of Karnataka.