Kamla Beniwal likely to leave Mizoram Friday

Sacked Mizoram governor Kamla Beniwal will leave for her home state Rajasthan Friday, an official Thursday said.

"The outgoing governor would leave Aizawl for Jaipur by a private airliner Friday afternoon," a Raj Bhavan official told IANS.

Former home secretary Vinod Kumar Duggal, who is the incumbent governor of Manipur, will hold an additional charge of Mizoram.

When approached for Beniwal's comments about her dismissal, the official said: "The governor did not want to make any comment about this."

Beniwal, 87, who was Thursday scheduled to visit Hmuifang tourism resort, about 50 km from Aizawl, called-off her programme.

The official said as she was leaving Mizoram in a short notice, it would not be possible to organise a ceremonial farewell dinner for the governor.

"A brief farewell function would be held and a guard of honour would be accorded to Beniwal at the Lengpui Airport Friday before her departure. Mizoram's acting Chief Minister R. Lalzirliana (home minister), his cabinet colleagues and top officials will see-off Beniwal," he added.

Beniwal was earlier transferred from Gujarat to Mizoram and sworn-in as the 12th governor of the Congress-ruled state July 9.

However, Beniwal, who had a strained relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat chief minister, was sacked Wednesday night, two months before her tenure comes to an end.

She is the second governor to be removed from her post by the NDA government. Puducherry former governor Virendra Kataria was sacked July 12.

After the Modi-led government took charge May 26, six governors had resigned following the government's signals. They were B.L. Joshi (Uttar Pradesh), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), M.K. Narayanan (West Bengal), B.V. Wanchoo (Goa) and Vakkom B. Purushothaman (Mizoram).