| UP Governor Joshi quits, more to resign | | | Agencies
NEW DELHI, June 17: Uttar Pradesh Governor B L Joshi today resigned as the NarendraModi government started the process of removal of those appointed by the previous UPA regime but apparently there was resistance from some of those who were asked to quit.
Kerala Governor ShielaDikshit and four more Governors are understood to have been asked to make way for new appointees in the wake of the change of government at the Centre.
Among those who are understood to have been called by Home Secretary Anil Goswami for the nudge are Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, a Congressman from Kerala, Diskhit, a former Delhi Chief Minister who was appointed just on the eve of announcement of LokSabha polls, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan, Nagaland Governor Ashwani Kumar, a former CBI Director.
KamlaBeniwal, who did not share good relations with Modi during his tenure as Chief Minister in Gujarat, may also be on the way out.
Sankaranarayanan and Dikshit are said to be holding out mulling their next move. There is also speculation that some of the Governors may be shifted to "insignificant" states in a bid to ease them out.
Karnataka Governor HR Bharadwaj, whose term is coming to an end this month, and Assam Governor
JB Patnaik, who has three more months, have said they have not resigned.
The resignation of 78-Joshi, who was recently sworn-in for a fresh term in Uttar Pradesh and was known for his proximity to the Nehru-Gandhi family, was sent to President Pranab Mukherjee, who accepted it and asked Uttrakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi to discharge duties till further orders.
It came a day after the Centre made known to some of the Governors that they quit.
By a strange coincidence, a number of Governors were in the national capital and some of them met the President fuelling speculation that they could have resigned.
Besides the Governors, the Government is also working on removal of political appointees in bodies like National Disaster Management Authority.
While change of Governors has been routinely followed by new governments ever since the Janata party government unceremoniously removed Governors in 1977, ushering in a new practice, a judgement of the Supreme Court in 2010 has apparently circumscribed the government's hands now in going for the kill.
The judgement of a bench headed by the then Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan had said that while it was the prerogative of the government to remove Governors, it cannot be done in an arbitrary, capricious or unreasonable manner.
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