Ram Naik and V K Malhotra among five new governors to be appointed by President Pranab Mukherjee

NEW DELHI: Five new governors are expected to be appointed by the President, with the Home Ministry submitting their names to Rashtrapati Bhawan and former BJP minister Ram Naik confirming that he has been asked by the BJP to become governor of Uttar Pradesh. Vijay Kumar Malhotra could be the new West Bengal Governor.

This could be the first set of governor appointments. Home Ministry officials said the names of former UP BJP president Kesari Nath Tripathi, VK Malhotra, Kailash Joshi, BL Tandon and Naik have been recommended to the President for filling vacancies in the Raj Bhawans in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Nagaland.

The President is expected to issue the orders by Monday. “I was asked by my party to accept the position of the governor of Uttar Pradesh and I said yes. It is a challenging job and I am accustomed to doing challenging jobs,” Naik said on Sunday, adding that he was awaiting official orders of the same.

BL Joshi had resigned as the governor of UP last month while M K Narayanan quit as the West Bengal governor after his questioning by CBI in the Agusta Westland scam. Malhotra is expected to replace him in the Kolkata Raj Bhawan.

Kamla Beniwal was shifted from the Raj Bhawan of Gujarat to Mizoram earlier this month while the governors of Chhattisgarh and Nagaland – Shekhar Dutt and Ashwani Kumar – had resigned last month.

The government also has to fill up vacancies in Raj Bhawans of Goa, Tripura, Mizoram and Karnataka. The Lt. Governor of Puducherry, Virendra Katarai, was removed on Friday after a serious complaint against him.

“The transfer of Sheila Dikshit and K Sankaranarayanan are also on the cards from the Raj Bhawans of Kerala and Maharashtra, respectively,” a ministry official said.

The next set of governor appointments could take place after the return of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from abroad later this week, it was added.