From CK Nayak
Some more governors likely to quit
New Delhi: Governors of some other states are likely to follow in the footsteps of BL Joshi, former Meghalaya and current Uttar Pradesh Governor, who put in his papers on Tuesday, but the non-political appointees to the constitutional post in the North East including Meghalaya might continue in their respective chairs despite a change of regime at the Centre.
However, political appointees including Assam Governor JB Patnaik might be shown the door sooner or later, sources informed.
Patnaik, a three-time Chief Minister of Odisha and former Union Minister, might even be deputed as the Governor of a ‘small state’ to force him to quit, sources added.
Sources in the government informed that Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami has called up seven Governors and suggested them to put in their
papers.
The seven Governors who have been asked to step down are M.K. Narayanan (West Bengal), Sheila Dikshit (Kerala), Margaret Alva (Rajasthan), Kamla Beniwal (Gujarat), K Sankaranarayanan (Maharashtra) and Devendra Konwar (Tripura), besides Patnaik.
Meghalaya Governor KK Paul, the former Police Commissioner of Delhi, is likely to continue “since he is not a political appointee,” sources added.
Paul has already met the President, the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister, and is scheduled to leave for Shillong on Thursday.
Rumours were doing the rounds that both the Karnataka and Assam governors had tendered their resignations. However, both Patnaik and H.R. Bhardwaj (Karnataka Governor) denied any such move.
The BJP, meanwhile, has called the Uttar Pradesh Governor’s resignation a natural course of action but the opposition Congress, meanwhile, has reacted strongly to reports of Governors being shunted out.
The NDA government is said to be following the example set by the UPA-I government which, after coming to power in 2004, got rid of BJP appointees in Raj Bhavans including Vishnukant Shastri (UP), Kailashpati Mishra (Gujarat), Babu Parmananad (Haryana) and Kedarnath Sahni (Goa).