Sheila Dikshit Resigns As Governor Of Kerala

TIR, 26 August, New Delhi: After much hassle and insisting on retaining her position, Sheila Dikshit has finally resigned as Governor of Kerala. The news comes after Dikshit’d meeting with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday.

According to the sources, Dikshit had made up her some time back and that it was only a matter of time before she stepped down.

Dikshit’s resignation come as a surprise, since she was among a handful of Governors who were adamant of keeping their positions despite alleged pressure from the NDA government. She had repeatedly insisted that she would not resign even as the newly installed government at the Centre had began reshuffling the Governor posts.

Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party government took charge in May this year, it has been on the mission to replace UPA-appointed state governors. As the pressure started building, many Governors were transferred and several submitted their resignation. One or two Governors were also sacked in the process.

Dikshit will be the seventh UPA appointed Governor to resign ever since the NDA government took charge at the Centre. Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, after refusing to accept transfer to Mizoram, resigned on Sunday. Kamala Beniwal was sacked as Mizoram Givernor earlier in August.

Earlier this month, Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi presented a petition in the Supreme Court against the Centre, challenging Modi government’s moves to ease him out of office. This plea along with earlier transfers and resignations of Governors intensified the controversy over removal of UPA-appointed Governors.

Dikshit, after having met with massive loss at Delhi polls, was posted to Kerala by the previous UPA government. The Congress and other opposition parties are claiming that the NDA government’s move to replace governors violates a Supreme Court order from 2010, where it says that governors cannot be ejected if the government at the Centre changes.