Wasn’t asked to go, will complete term: Assam Guv

Assam Governor Syed Sibtey Razi on Tuesday denied that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked him to step down and ruled out the possibility of resigning from the post.

Assam Governor Syed Sibtey Razi on Tuesday denied that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had asked him to step down and ruled out the possibility of resigning from the post.

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Media reports that claimed that last week, Singh had asked him to go in view of the CBI raids against two of his aides in Jharkhand were “absolutely false”, he said.

Reports in a section of media said on Tuesday Singh told Razi to quit on health grounds, ostensibly to counter resentment in Jharkhand due for assembly polls later this year. Under the Governor’s Rule, the state is expected to go to the polls with Maharashtra.

The officials in the Prime Minister’s Office also described the media reports as “totally untrue”.

Razi is understood to have sought a meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi but hasn’t been successful so far.

The high command is unlikely to insist on his immediate resignation and will let him retire, pary sources suggest.

Razi, who met Home Minister P. Chidambaram during the day, made it clear that he wasn’t in no hurry to quit.

"I’m not going to resign. I was Governor, I am a Governor and will be Governor (till the end of the term)," he said, claiming his meetings were about affairs of Assam and the Northeast Council, and not him continuing in Guwahati’s Raj Bhavan.

“All allegations against me are false,” he said. Razi refused to speak on the charges against his former aides.

Razi was the governor of Jharkhand for over four years, from December 2004, and was shifted to Assam last month for the remaining part of the five-year term.