Ahmedabad: Gujarat Governor Kamla Beniwal, who shared an uneasy relationship with Narendra Modi when he was the Chief Minister of the state, was on Sunday transferred to Mizoram in a reshuffle of governors set in motion by the government.
Beniwal’s tenure ends in November. The 87-year-old had a running battle with the Modi government over the appointment of the state Lokayukta and other legal issues.
She will take over from Vakkom Purushothaman, the current Mizoram governor. Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva, who will demit office exactly in a month, will shift to Ahmedabad to take additional charge.
During her confrontation with Modi, Beniwal had appointed retired Justice R A Mehta as the Lokayukta in Gujarat. The state government had moved the High Court and later the Supreme Court to appeal against the decision, which the latter upheld last year.
Justice Mehta refused to take up the post and Modi’s government then named a new nominee.
Beniwal also sat over legislations passed by the state Assembly, one of which provided for 50% reservation for women in local bodies.
Earlier, there was speculation that new Governors would be appointed before the Budget Session of Parliament starting Monday, in place of those who had quit. Many of them were asked by the new government to put in their papers.
Those who resigned after the government’s signals are B L Joshi (Uttar Pradesh), M K Narayanan (West Bengal), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland) and B V Wanchoo (Goa.
Wanchoo resigned on July 4, the day he was questioned by the Central Bureau of Investigation as a witness in the AgustaWestland helicopter purchase scam. A few days earlier, former National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had also quit as the West Bengal Governor after being questioned by the CBI.
Two Governors — H R Bharadwaj (Karnataka) and Devanand Konwar (Tripura) — were allowed to stay till their tenures ended last month.
A few other Governors appointed by the previous United Progressive Alliance regime continue to remain in office. They include K Sankaranarayanan (Maharashtra), Sheila Dikshit (Kerala), Jaganath Pahadia (Haryana), Shivraj V Patil (Punjab) besides others.Â