The government may announce names of around half a dozen governors as early as on Wednesday, Union home ministry sources told HT.
Names of former Lucknow MP Lalji Tandon, former UP assembly speaker Keshri Nath Tripathi, former Union ministers Ram Naik and VK Malhotra, former Bhopal MP Kailash Joshi, BJP leader from Kerala O Rajagopal, former chief ministers Shanta Kumar and Kalyan Singh and former attorney general Soli Sorabjee have been discussed for gubernatorial assignments.
“At the moment there are vacancies in seven Raj Bhavans — Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tripura, Goa, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Governors of neighbouring states have been asked to look after these Raj Bhavans as additional charge.
Sources added some of the governors — like Kerala’s Sheila Dikshit and Maharashtra K Sankaranarayanan — may be transferred to some other states.
So far the Narendra Modi government has transferred two governors — Gujarat’s Kamla Beniwal to Mizoram and Mizoram’s V Purushottam to Nagaland.
Five governors — Uttar Pradesh’s BL Joshi, Chhattisgarh’s Shekhar Dutt, West Bengal’s MK Narayanan, Goa’s BV Wanchoo and Nagaland’s Ashwini Kumar —have resigned.
Terms of two governors – Karnataka’s HR Bhardwaj and Tripura’s Devanand Konwar — expired last month.