New Delhi: The Centre on Sunday shunted out Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal to Mizoram. Ms Beniwal had seen many ups and down in her relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was the chief minister of Gujarat. Rajasthan governor Margaret Alva, who will demit office exactly in a month, will take additional charge.
Ms Beniwal will take over the charge from Vakkom Purushothaman. Mr Purushothaman has been transferred to Nagaland as Governor for the remainder of his term. He will also hold additional charge as Tripura Governor.
During her confrontation with Mr Modi, Ms Beniwal had appointed Justice R.A. Mehta (Retd) as the lokayukta in Gujarat, which the state appealed against in the high court and later the Supreme Court, which upheld the appointment last year. However, Justice Mehta did not take up the post and the Gujarat government named a new nominee.
Ms Beniwal also sat over legislations passed by the state Assembly, one of which provided 50 per cent reservation for women in local bodies.
Ms Alva will discharge the functions of Gujarat governor, in addition to her own duties, until a regular appointment for the post is made.
Earlier, there was speculation that new governors would be appointed before the budget session of Parliament, which begins on Monday, in place of those who had quit.
Those who resigned after the government’s signal are B.L. Joshi (UP), M.K. Narayanan (WB), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland) and B.V. Wanchoo (Goa).
However, some other Governors appointed by the previous UPA regime continue to remain in office. They include K. Sankaranarayanan (Maharashtra), Sheila Dikshit (Kerala), Jaganath Pahadia (Haryana), Shivraj V. Patil (Punjab). Mr Sankaranarayanan was among those asked to quit.
