No hint from Centre to quit, says Sheila Dikshit

NEW DELHI: Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit today denied receiving any hint from the Centre to quit and said she was not aware of any move to transfer her out of Thiruvananthapuram Rajbhavan.

"No", she said here when asked whether she was sounded by anyone in the Central government to put in papers after the NDA government assumed power last month.

Dikshit, a former Chief Minister of Delhi, today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Rajnath Singh and described them as "courtesy call" and "good meetings".

Asked whether she was aware of any move by the Centre to transfer her from Kerala to a state in Northeast, Dikshit said she did not know what would happen in future.

"I do not know what will happen in next 10 days or 10 months," she told reporters after meeting the Home Minister.

Following the change of guard at the Centre and the new regime's pressure, five Governors have already resigned.

They are B L Joshi (Uttar Pradesh), M K Narayanan (West Bengal), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland) and B V Wanchoo (Goa).

Two Governors -- H R Bhardwaj (Karnataka) and Devanand Konwar (Tripura) -- retired late last month.

A few other Governors appointed by the previous UPA regime, however, continue to remain in office. They include K Sankaranarayanan (Maharashtra), Sheila Dikshit (Kerala), Jaganath Pahadia (Haryana) and Shivraj V Patil (Punjab).

Gujarat Governor Kamala Beniwal was transferred to the Mizoram Raj Bhawan on Sunday, and Mizoram Governor Vakkom Purushothaman has been shifted to Nagaland for the remainder of their term.