Eye on polls, Centre shuffles Governors

In a major reshuffle tonight the Centre shifted the governors of half-a-dozen states, including Bihar. According to a Rashtrapati Bhawan rel...

In a major reshuffle tonight the Centre shifted the governors of half-a-dozen states, including Bihar. According to a Rashtrapati Bhawan release, Bihar Governor Vinod Chandra Pande has been shifted to Arunachal Pradesh. Jharkhand Governor M. Rama Jois, a former high court judge, will step into Pande’s shoes. Jois is known for his proximity to the Sangh Parivar.

However, it is not good news for the Laloo Prasad Yadav-Rabri Devi duo as they would find it difficult to take him on, given his felicity with rules and norms on the one hand and his background of judiciary on the other.

Arunachal Pradesh Governor Arvind Dave, a former RAW chief, moves to Manipur where he would continue to hold the additional charge of Assam, assigned to him after the transfer of Gen. S.K. Sinha (retd) to Jammu and Kashmir. His understanding of security matters would stand him in good stead in the two sensitive states faced with insurgency.

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He relieves Ved Prakash Marwah at Imphal, a former Delhi Police chief, who has been shifted to Ranchi to succeed Rama Jois.

Tripura Governor Lt Gen K.M. Seth (retd) has swapped places with Dinesh Nandan Sahay of Chhattisgarh. Sahay’s exit from the Raipur Raj Bhawan is significant.

Though he was appointed at the behest of the Samata Party, Sahay gradually got too close to Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, causing the state BJP to be up in arms against him.

Now, that the state is headed for Assembly elections, the BJP high command, which had so far cold-shouldered the state unit’s demand for his removal, saw sense in sending him packing. A governor can, after all, tilt the scales if the elections throw up an unclear verdict. Therefore, a pro-Jogi governor is what the BJP does not want in the state.

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The current mess in the Samata also came in handy for the BJP, for a party, divided between two camps could hardly come to his rescue.