Ex-babus, cops likely to bag seven governor posts

NEW DELHI: In the impending gubernatorial appointments, likely to take place after polls in Delhi, the government is likely to give former bureaucrats and retired policemen a fare share of Raj Bhavans along with `pasttheir-prime' politicians.

As many as seven Raj Bhavans are lying vacant and the government has indicated that appointments would be done after the February 7 Delhi polls. “This time some former bureaucrats and retired policemen are also being considered,“ said a government source privy to the discussions.

Last year, the Modi government appointed 11 governors and all except one were BJP politicians. Only the Kerala Raj Bhavan went to former CJI P Sathasivam. Governors of all other ten states appointed by the Modi government were BJP veterans such as Ram Naik, KN Tripathi, OP Kohli, BD Tandon, Vidyasagar Rao, Kalyan Singh, Padmanabha Acharya, KS Solanki, VR Vala and Mridula Sinha. The new governors are likely to be appointed in Bihar, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Punjab, Himachal and Tripura. Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh on Wednesday took additional charge of Himachal.