Sheila Dikshit resigns as Kerala governor

The former Delhi CM put in her papers a day after meeting with the President and Home Minister Rajnath Singh

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Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit resigned Tuesday, a day after her meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Rajnath Singh. 

 

There had been some talk that she might put in her papers if moved out of Kerala. Sources said she had been asked to charge as governor of Mizoram. 

 

Dikshit's resignation came on a day President announced new four governors to Karnataka, Rakasthan, Goa and Maharashtra. 

 

Senior Congress leader from Kerala K. Sankaranarayanan quit as the governor of Maharashtra recently, protesting his transfer to Mizoram. Five UPA-appointed governors have already resigned after being nudged in that direction by the NDA government.

 

During her 15-minute meeting with the Home Minister on Monday, Dikshit is understood to have discussed about her continuation in Thiruvananthapuram Raj Bhavan, sources said. 

 

Dikshit, who served as Delhi Chief Minister from 1998 to 2013, was appointed Kerala governor in March just before the model code of conduct came into force for the Lok Sabha polls. She was also named as an accused in Commonwealth Games corruption case; however, her appointment as governor of Kerala shortly after the Aad Aadmi Party came to power in Delhi gave her Constitutional immunity in that case. Dikshit has also sought quashing of the case against her on those grounds. 

 

She is the seventh governor to resign after the NDA came to power at centre. She was sworn in as the Governor of Kerala on March 11, 2014. 

 

Dikshit on Monday had denied reports about her stepping down. “These are just speculations,” she said after her meeting with Singh.

 

Earlier, the NDA government had transferred Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal to Mizoram, but sacked her after she refused to resign, only three months before the October end of her tenure. 

 

As Gujarat Governor, Beniwal had a running battle with Narendra Modi when he was the state's chief minister, particularly over the appointment of a Lokayukta in the state.

 

Virendra Kataria, a former Congress leader, was also sacked as Puducherry Lieutenant Governor in July.

 

Five other Governors -- MK Narayanan (West Bengal), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), B L Joshi (UP), B V Wanchoo (Goa) and Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh) had put in their papers, reportedly after the Union Home Secretary spoke with them.

 

Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi has challenged in court the NDA government's moves to ease him out of office, bringing the controversy over removal of UPA-appointed Governors under a judicial scanner.