New Delhi • Former Kerala finance minister K. Sankaranarayanan is one of the likely names being mentioned for governor of Karnataka.
Speaking to IANS, former chief minister Oommen Chandy said that Sankaranarayanan’s name was one of the few from Kerala that are being considered for the post.
The 73-year-old Sankaranarayanan is a veteran Congress leader and a four-time legislator. He first became a minister in 1977 when he headed the agricultural ministry and was finance minister in the A.K. Antony cabinet from 2001-04.
He was also convenor of the Congress-led United Democratic Front for 16 years from 1985 till he became a minister in 2001.
A soft-spoken man with pleasing manners and non-controversial, Sankaranarayanan is a close aide of Antony. Incidentally, Antony holds charge of Congress party affairs in Karnataka. The current Karnataka governor, TN Chaturvedi, is due to retire soon.
Much-awaited gubernatorial postings are expected to take place next week as Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have finalised a list, sources say.
According to official sources, the list of seven appointees finalised by Gandhi in consultation with Manmohan Singh is with the home ministry and an official announcement is likely to take place next week.
The names of party secretary Margaret Alva, Gandhi family loyalist ML Fotedar, senior Congress leader from Kerala K. Sankaranarayanan, Tamil Nadu Congress leader Arul Anbarasu and party secretary Major Ved Prakash are in the list, sources said.
The government is believed to be seriously considering senior bureaucrat Reva Nayyar’s name for the gubernatorial post.
Nayyar, the secretary in department of women and child development and the senior-most serving bureaucrat of the 1968 batch, had earlier been tipped to be the new cabinet secretary to replace BK Chaturvedi, who was to retire this month. However, the government decided to extend Chaturvedi’s tenure by one year.
Sources, however, said that Nayyar’s name had also been suggested for the Election Commission. A post will fall vacant in the three-member poll panel with Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon is retiring this month.
The states that need governors immediately are Andhra Pradesh, where the post has been lying vacant since Sushilkumar Shinde became a minister in the Manmohan Singh cabinet; and Bihar, where Buta Singh was recalled in January this year.
Other states that will require new Raj Bhavan appointments in the near future are Karnataka, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttaranchal.
Sources also said that the Congress president may pay heed to Maharashtra Governor SM Krishna’s long time plea to bring him back to active politics. “That makes one more governor’s post vacant,” said the source.
While Sankaranarayanan is expected to take over as Karnataka governor to succeed TN Chaturvedi who is due to retire, Anbarasu, a senior party leader and a long time loyalist of the Gandhi family, would be given “the responsibility of a sensitive state”, the source said.
“Like Alva, who is still reluctant to accept the gubernatorial post, Anbarasu also wanted to work in the party. But the Congress leadership felt that senior and experienced leaders should be given such responsibilities,” the source added.
Vakkom Purushotaman, former Kerala assembly speaker and former finance minister, whose name had been proposed for a governor’s post, is likely to be appointed to a diplomatic position. The Congress party may also keep some gubernatorial posts for its allies in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) coalition.
