Finally, after lots of speculations and fights, Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit tendered her resignation, a day after she met President Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The former Delhi chief minister was appointed the Governor of Kerala by the UPA-II government about five months ago. Earlier on Sunday, Maharashtra Governor K. Sankaranarayanan had put down his papers. UPA appointed Governors are resigning from their posts and BJP’s retired leaders are replacing them. With this, Dikshit becomes the eighth Governor to have resigned since the Narendra Modi’s government came to power on May 26. Government should abolish ‘Governor Post’ if they don’t enjoy the constitutional powers of it. These posts are always misused for political favouritism. This is waste of public money to glorify old age senior members of political parties.
Forced removal of Sheila Dikshit from the post by BJP is worse than appointed by Congress. It seems that whoever comes to power, politics and politicians’ attitude will be the same. There is some wider angle to her resignation. The first and foremost option after her resignation is that BJP will replace its loyalist with her. Secondly, Shiela will join Delhi politics and will strengthen the Congress party in Delhi. She will ask all the Congress loyalists to come back in party who moved to AAP.
Meanwhile, the NDA government had earlier appointed six Governors – Ram Naik (Uttar Pradesh), Keshari Nath Tripathi (West Bengal), Om Prakash Kohli (Gujarat), Balram Ji Das Tandan (Chhattisgarh), Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya (Nagaland) and Kaptan Singh Solanki (Haryana). Now, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh was appointed Governor of Rajasthan as the Centre named three more BJP leaders for the Raj Bhavans in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa. Gujarat Speaker Vajubhai Vala has been appointed Governor of Karnataka, where H R Bharadwaj had completed his tenure recently, while former Union Minister C Vidyasagar Rao will take the place of K Shankaranarayanan, who quit as Governor of Maharashtra on Sunday after he was shunted to Mizoram.
71-year Mridula Sinha, former President of BJP’s Mahila Morcha, was appointed as Governor of Goa in place of B V Wanchoo who was among those asked to quit after the change of guard at the Centre. According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique, 82-year-old Kalyan Singh will take over in Jaipur in the vacancy caused by the retirement of Margaret Alva earlier this month. A two-time Chief Minister, Singh was convicted for a day by the Supreme Court on October 24, 1994 for violating the commitment made to the Supreme Court on ensuring the safety and protection of the Babri Masjid. He quit BJP on two occasions but returned to its fold.76-year-old Vala, who will take over in Bangalore, is an old trusted aide of Modi who served in his Government as Finance Minister before he was elected as Speaker of Gujarat Vidhan Sabha in January last year. Rao, who had served as Minister of State for Home in the Vajpayee government, hails from newly carved out Telangana state. A lawyer by profession, 69-year-old Rao was elected to Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly three times and was the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in the assembly.
Sinha, a noted Hindi writer, has authored a dozen books including “Ek thi rani aisi bhi”, a book dedicated to Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia. The Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said the appointments will take effect from the dates the incumbents assume charge of their respective offices. The resignation of Shankaranarayanan, who was transferred as Governor of Mizoram, has been accepted. Vinod Kumar Duggal, Governor of Manipur, will continue to hold the additional charge of Mizoram, until regular arrangement for the office of the Governor of Mizoram is made. Earlier, the NDA government had sacked Mizoram Governor Kamla Beniwal, who had served in Gujarat and had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was the state’s Chief Minister. Virendra Kataria, a former Congress leader, was also sacked as Puducherry Lieutenant Governor last month. Five other Governors — M K Narayanan (West Bengal), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), B L Joshi (UP), B V Wanchoo (Goa) and Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh) had put down their papers apparently after they were telephoned by the Union Home Secretary. While veteran Congress leader Jagannath Pahadia completed his tenure as Governor of Haryana last year, Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi had challenged Modi government’s moves to ease him out of office, bringing the controversy over removal of UPA-appointed Governors under judicial lens.
In the revival process, BJP not only made appointments of Governor but also did the generational shift in BJP with its founders Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi being dropped from the Parliamentary Board, the highest decision-making body, which has the stamp of Prime Minister Narendra Modi all over now. In a token gesture — Mr. Vajpayee, Mr. Advani and Dr. Joshi — for long the BJP’s ‘Trimurti’, now figure in the new five-member Margdarshak Mandal (guiding group) after being associated with the party for nearly four decades. Three-time Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and party general secretary J.P. Nadda are the new entrants to the BJP Parliamentary Board which was reconstituted by newly-appointed chief Amit Shah. The three senior leaders do not stand to lose anything but the party is on losing side. Age does not catch up with everyone. The three leaders have been guiding the destiny of the party from its formation. They have so much experience that their advice is sought. People must retire at some age rather than being kicked out. Besides, bringing in fresh ideas is a good move. Let’s see, what would be the next change in cards for BJP.
Inputs from news agencies
