SC issues notice to centre on plea seeking removal of MP governor Ram Naresh Yadav

NEW DELHI: Time seems to be running out for Madhya Pradesh governor Ram Naresh Yadav. The Supreme Court on Thursday took a critical view of quashing of the complaints against the governor over his alleged involvement in the scam and issued a notice to the Centre on the plea seeking his removal from the post.

A senior BJP leader indicated the party’s growing unease with Yadav’s continuance in office after the court notice, and suggested that the party may take a call on the matter after PM Modi’s return from the BRICS summit next week.

Yadav, who was appointed during by the UPA rule, was not replaced when the government was appointing new governors last year. As per official sources, subtle indications had been sent to Yadav to resign from his position last year itself, but he had been recalcitrant.

Even earlier this year in May, when the government appointed new governors, Yadav was not disturbed as the political leadership took a sympathetic call in the wake of the death of his son in March. His son, Shailesh Yadav, who was named in an FIR in the Vyapam scam, was found dead under mysterious circumstances. "We took a humanitarian view in the wake of his son’s death," a top government functionary had said.

"There is enough material of his impropriety that government will not find it difficult to axe him," a senior BJP leader told ET on Thursday. The leader said the grounds on which the government had sacked Puducherry L-G Virendra Kataria last year were applicable in this case too.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh called on President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the evening. Although speculation was rife that the meeting was over Yadav, home ministry sources said the meeting had been planned before the Supreme Court notice.