Govt clears Advani’s list of five Governors

NEW DELHI, NOV 19: Acting on the expected lines, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) okayed the names of five Governors shortlisted by the Home Ministry and these have been cleared by President K R Narayanan. But the Government is still stuck on naming the Governor for Karnataka as all efforts to persuade senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sikandar Bakth accept the responsibility have failed.

According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued on Friday, former cabinet secretary Vinod Pande will be the new Governor of Bihar and Gujarat industrialist Viren Shah of West Bengal. Ved Marwah, former IPS officer, has been sent to Manipur while F F R Jacob, currently Governor of Goa, will now be the Punjab Governor. Faisal Ahmed, former Planning Commission member, replaces Jacob in Goa.

But what is causing concern to the North Block is its helplessness in zeroing in on the fresh Karnataka Governor. Sikandar Bakth has reportedly turned down the offer to head southward. But in an interesting development, sources disclose, the Governor of a northern state has approached Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with a request to "shifted" him to Karnataka.

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Vajpayee, however, did not warm up to the offer, it is learnt.

The search for the Karnataka Governor has now led the decision-makers to Janakrishna Murthy, senior BJP vice-president, their next choice after Bakth. But here too, concrete outcome eludes them.