Ahead of polls, PM picks Kovind as Bihar Governor

After the DNA row, there seems to be another controversy brewing between Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This time, it is over the appointment of senior BJP leader Ram Nath Kovind as the Bihar Governor.

Taking on Modi for “bypassing” the state government on Governor’s nomination, Nitish said: “As per the precedent so far, the Central government, the Home Minister talks to the state government, its Chief Minister on it (appointment of Governor)… This time there is no consultation. I have also got the information (about the appointment) through media.” Slamming the Centre’s move to appoint a fulltime Governor without consulting the state government, senior Janata Dal United (JD-U) leader Shyam Rajak said Modiji has no believe in Constitutional procedures.

“According to the existing procedure and protocol, the Union Home Minister takes prior consent of concerned Chief Minister before making a final announcement about selection of Governor, but in this case the Bihar CM was not even informed, what to talk about taking consent,” Rajak, who is close to Kumar, told Millennium Post.

Calling Modi’s move as “new cooperative federalism”, Rajak added: “Modiji talks about strengthening of states, but the steps like this when Centre appoints a Constitutional head without the state’s consent is not a welcome one. This move of the Centre is aimed at taking the control of Bihar in their hands as the state will go for Assembly polls in October.”

Defending the decision, senior BJP leaders of the state have pointed out that this is nothing new. 

The UPA regime too had not informed Nitish Kumar when Devanand Konwar was appointed the Governor in 2009.

Rubbishing BJP’s theory, Rajak said: “What kind of logic is this... so you deliberately didn’t inform Nitish Kumar to follow UPA’s footsteps... please don’t call yourself NDA government, but say you are UPA-3 who doesn’t believe in cooperative federalism.”

According to political experts, the appointment of 69-year-old Kovind, a Dalit leader from Uttar Pradesh, is deliberately timed as any opposition to his candidature will be seen as opposing the caste as a whole. With elections round the corner, Dalits are going to play an important role in BJP’s caste calculation. After roping in Union Cabinet minister Ram Vilas Paswan and former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi as allies of the NDA, the BJP hopes to make more inroads with this appointment.

Kovind, a lawyer by profession, had been a two-time Rajya Sabha member between 1994 and 2006 and had also served as BJP Scheduled Caste Morcha president. West Bengal Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi was holding additional charge of Bihar.

Acharya Dev Vrat was on Saturday appointed as Governor of Himachal Pradesh. Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh was holding the additional charge of Himachal Pradesh.