Narayanan to be new Bengal guv

Shivraj Patil likely to take charge of Punjab.

National Security Advisor M K Narayanan’s name was cleared today as the next governor of West Bengal. The Congress core committee, headed by party president Sonia Gandhi, today unanimously decided to appoint Narayanan in the Left-ruled state, which has witnessed Naxal violence in the past two years.

Narayanan, who headed the Intelligence Bureau.

Former home minister Shivraj V Patil bid active politcs goodbye and is likely to take charge of Punjab as governor.

Santosh Mohan Dev, another former Union minister, is also heading for a Raj Bhawan, the official residence of a governor.

Dev was the heavy industries minister in the first UPA but lost the 2009 Lok Sabha election from his home turf of Silchar in Assam, while Shivraj Patil stepped down after the Novermber 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

The formal announcements are expected to be made on Saturday.

Apart from inclusion of some new faces, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) management has decided to shift a few serving governors from their current states. Prabha Rao, who is currently in Himachal Pradesh, may be transferred to Madhya Pradesh.

Chhattisgarh Governor E S L Narsimhan and Jharkhand’s K Sankaranarayanan are likely to be posted to other states.

At present, the Raj Bhawan chairs in Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab, West Bengal and Rajasthan are awaiting new appointments.

Top bureaucratic sources for the UPA told Business Standard that one list of governors were prepared and handed over to Home Secretary G K Pillai on Thursday itself. Pillai even contacted the chief ministers concerned and asked them to be ready for the announcement. But after a few hours, Pillai was asked to hold back the list as the Congress core committee was slated to hold a meeting on Friday.