New Delhi, March 13 :     The Centre tonight shifted Bihar Governor Sundar Singh Bhandari to Gujarat, abruptly ending one of the most tumultuous and controversial reigns in the Raj Bhavan. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqu? said Patna High Court chief justice Brij Mohan Lal would officiate as Governor of Bihar till an appointment was made. The communiqu? said Bhandari would be Gujarat Governor ?for the remainder of his term?. Bhandari?s sudden transfer came five days after he was forced to reinstate Rabri Devi as chief minister following revocation of President?s rule. Bhandari, earlier locked in a war of nerves with the Centre over his continuation in Bihar, today said he himself wanted to leave the state. ?I myself told the Centre about my decision to leave Patna and requested them to relieve me. I am happy that my request has been acceded to,? he said. BJP sources claimed Bhandari had told Union home minister L.K. Advani when he met him two days ago that he was ?not comfortable? in Patna after the unparalleled rollback of President?s rule in the state. Rabri Devi, too, had made it clear after her re-installation that it would not be possible to work under a ?hostile? Governor. Although Bhandari said he was going on his own, he seems to have been squeezed between the demand for his removal and Advani?s growing aversion to him. The clamour of Rabri Devi and her party for Bhandari?s removal made it convenient for Advani to pull the plug. Earlier, he had tried in vain to replace Bhandari by declaring publicly that Bihar would have an ?apolitical Governor?, unleashing a storm that further muddled the Bihar fiasco. Officially, the BJP, whose hardliners had opposed tooth and nail the attempts to remove Bhandari, distanced itself from the transfer, saying it was a government decision. ?We have nothing to say about it,? party spokesman M. Venkaiah Naidu said. But the BJP?s Bihar unit was more outspoken, describing the move as ?unfortunate?. The transfer does spare Bhandari the ignominy of reading out the customary Governor?s speech before the joint session of the legislature which could have had humiliating references to his recommendation to impose Central rule in the state. Laloo Prasad Yadav had hinted that the speech, usually a policy road map of the state government, would have included references to the Centre?s humiliating retreat on President?s rule. Laloo Yadav, away on a tour, was unavailable for comment tonight. CPM leader Harkishen Singh Surjeet said it was clear that Bhandari would not have wanted to read out the address which would have attacked the RSS. However, asked about the immediate reason for opting out, Bhandari said: ?I would not like to divulge that, nor do I feel it necessary to do so.? The Congress, which had sprung the Bihar surprise on the BJP and forced it to revoke President?s rule in the state, welcomed the transfer, adding it should have been done long ago. The Left said ?the declared RSS man? should have been sacked instead of being installed in Gujarat. In February, the Rabri Devi government was dismissed and the Assembly kept in suspended animation. However, the BJP-led government had to revoke the Central rule this week, realising that ratification of the dismissal was not possible in the Rajya Sabha without the Congress? support. The BJP is now harping on the Congress-Laloo Yadav ?nexus?, demanding that the Congress clarify its stand on whether it would support or oppose the Rabri Devi government at next week?s trust vote.