NDA may request Pranab Mukherjee to remove UPA-appointed governors after Budget session

NEW DELHI: With four Congress-appointed governors having tendered their resignations and two retired, the BJP-led government is awaiting more resignations, with a source terming the budget session as the last “buffer” between this waiting period and the time to take action to remove those who decide to stay on.

“In 1998, when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government took charge, it didn’t touch any of the governors, but the moment the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance came to power in 2004, it made all governors appointed by the previous government to resign,” said a senior source in the government.

“The moral imperative therefore is that UPA-appointed governors should also do so.” While the ultimate remedy of going to the President to remove them is always there, it was being hoped that the resignations of four governors so far — Shekhar Dutt ( Chhattisgarh), MK Narayanan (West Bengal), BL Joshi (Uttar Pradesh) and Ashwini Kumar ( Nagaland) — would spur more to follow suit, this source said.

The governors are not desisting from making political decisions and taking actions even as the government at the Centre was waiting on their resignations, he said. “In one state in western India, MLCs have been appointed by the governor, another in north India is holding Janata Darbars, and appointing vicechancellors. These are not right portends.”

BJP, in the meanwhile, is readying its own list of people headed for Raj Bhavans, a list that includes seniors like Murli Manohar Joshi and Lalji Tandon. Some of these seniors are not looking very optimistically to a Raj Bhavan retirement, but party sources say they will “ultimately accept it”. A governorship usually is seen as retirement from active politics.

“The fact remains that under this government, a whole new generation of people needs to be given a chance to participate in the government,” the person said, adding that the party has a long list of people “who need to withdraw from the scene”.