Patna, March 9: Bihar Governor Devanand Konwar, who shared a turbulent relationship with the NDA government in the state, is on his way out with well over a year for his term to end.
Konwar, a Congress leader from Assam, is set to swap places with Tripura Governor D.Y. Patil.
Patil (72), a Congressman from Maharashtra, is an educationist from the western state who runs several engineering institutes and also has a cricket stadium in Navi Mumbai named after him.
Konwar had taken charge at Patna Raj Bhavan on July 24, 2009, replacing R.L. Bhatia.
Sources said his transfer is politically significant as it is another gesture by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre to “soften up” chief minister Nitish Kumar, a key NDA ally known to be opposed to the elevation of Narendra Modi as the Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate.
“The replacement of Konwar, over a year ahead of competing his five-year term, is a clear indication that the UPA government has taken utmost care of the sentiments of the Bihar government in general and Nitish Kumar in particular,” a senior Bihar minister told The Telegraph, speaking off the record. “It is a big relief to the state.”
The government has been engaged in a running feud with Raj Bhavan over a variety of issues ever since Konwar took charge as governor. At present, the governor and the government are locked in a legal tussle over the appointment of vice-chancellors to six state universities. The governor is the ex-officio chancellor of the state’s universities.
The government has moved the Supreme Court against the governor restoring the VCs whose appointments were declared “illegal” by Patna High Court in December last year on the ground that Konwar did not carry out the mandatory consultation with the government before making the appointments.
The governor has also kept on hold as many as five bills related to the key higher education department that were passed by the state legislature two to three years ago.
While education minister P.K. Shahi is on record having criticised the governor many a time for his “whimsical way” of appointing VCs and pro-VCs in the state universities, Janata Dal (United) general secretary Shivanand Tiwari had personally met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year, demanding Konwar’s removal.
In spite of the differences between the JD(U) and the BJP over Narendra Modi’s possible projection as the prime ministerial candidate, the NDA ministers have put up a united face in their opposition to the governor. Deputy chief minister Sushil Modi is on record criticising the governor for “disregarding” the wishes of the duly elected government on several issues in the state.
Sources said the Centre’s decision to shift Konwar and replace him with someone not known to engage in “confrontation”, has added to speculation that the Congress is willing to go the extra mile in its relationship with Nitish.
A couple of days ago, Manmohan Singh praised Bihar as the “fastest growing state” in the country, to which Nitish thanked the Prime Minister profusely. In his budget, finance minister P. Chidambaram agreed that the parameters for determining backwardness need to be revisited, again seen as a gesture aimed at keeping Nitish in good humour as the Bihar chief minister has been demanding precisely this for the past few years.
The JD(U) is going to hold its Adhikar Rally at New Delhi on March 17 to take its demand for special category status closer to the power centre of the country.
“Chidambaram’s budget promise to revisit the parameters that determine backwardness, the Prime Minister’s Twitter praise of Bihar and now the decision to change a governor with whom the chief minister was never really comfortable — these are all signals that the Centre is eager to please the Bihar chief minister in the run-up to the general elections,” said a senior JD(U) ideologue. “Nitish will reciprocate the Centre’s gestures in his own way.”
