Mizoram Governor Aziz Qureshi sacked following feud with Centre

New Delhi: Mizoram Governor Aziz Qureshi, who has had a running feud with the Centre and even approached the Supreme Court against attempts to ease him out, was sacked on Saturday.

A brief statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said that "Qureshi shall cease to hold the office of the Governor of Mizoram."

Governor of West Bengal Keshari Nath Tripathi has been asked to discharge the functions of the Mizoram Governor, in addition to his own duties, until regular arrangements are made, it said.

Qureshi, who had a tenure till May 2017, is the second Governor after Kamla Beniwal to be sacked after having been shifted to Mizoram months after the Narendra Modi government assumed office.

Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan, who was also transferred to Mizoram, had tendered his resignation, refusing to take charge of his new assignment.

Qureshi, who was among the Governors appointed by the UPA government and was told by the then Home Secretary Anil Goswami to quit after change in Government, approached the Supreme Court against attempts to ease him out. He was then the Uttarakhand Governor.

In his petition, Qureshi, a veteran Congress leader, had claimed that after the NDA government came to power, Goswami had called him on July 30 and asked him to tender resignation and made it clear that he will be removed from office if he does not step down.

He alleged, in his petition, that Goswami again called him on August 8 insisting that he resign.

Goswami had said in his reply to the Supreme Court that he had, with authority and justification, "suggested" to Qureshi that he should consider resigning on his own since his actions were not "behoving the status of the Governor" and showed the constitutional office in "very poor light" apart from "bringing it into disrespect".

After the new Government took over, many governors appointed by the previous UPA regime were eased out which included Beniwal, 87, who had served in Gujarat earlier and had a running battle with Modi when he was the state's chief minister.

Virendra Kataria, a former Congress leader, was also sacked as Puducherry lieutenant governor.

Four other governors - MK Narayanan (West Bengal), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), BL Joshi (UP), Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh) and B V Wanchoo (Goa) had put in their papers apparently after they were telephoned by the Union Home secretary.