MUMBAI — With polls to the Indian Parliament and state assemblies approaching, Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna has decided to move out of the Raj Bhavan (governor’s house) in near future and take over the reins of the Congress party in Karnataka.
Polls in Karnataka have been declared for the later part of this year, and Krishna, long recognized as a leader with a regional face in Karnataka politics, will require the intervening time to prepare the battleground in his home state.
Krishna may lead Congress in elections in the neighboring state. He took over as the state governor after Mohammed Fazal’s term ended in December 2004. Interestingly, he would join the list of governors who did not serve the full five terms in office. Of the earlier state governors, only three, Dr. P.V. Cherian, Ali Yavar Jung and Dr. P.C. Alexander completed five-year terms.
Krishna’s re-entry into active politics in his home state is likely to mobilize the Vokkaliga votes which the Congress has missed out on in recent times, thus splitting the hold that the Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister Deve Gowda has on this community. Additionally his presence would aim at bringing back the estranged Lingayat community votes.
Krishna reportedly met Congress party President Sonia Gandhi in the first week of January to request the party high command’s permission to quit his present post. After the Gujarat embarrassment, followed by drubbing the Congress took in Himachal Pradesh polls, both in December 2007, the party’s next big poll challenge is in the Karnataka state.
In another development, the race for two top police posts — director general of police (DGP) and Mumbai police commissioner — has begun and the names of half a dozen senior high-profile Indian Police Service (IPS) officers are doing rounds for these two coveting postings.
On Feb. 29, DCP P.S. Pasricha and Mumbai police chief D.N. Jadhav are to retire. The three months extension granted to both of them by the federal government had been quashed by the Bombay High Court. However, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice J.P. Devadhar, had granted three week’s time to file an appeal in the Supreme Court. Technically it would not affect he continuation of both of them till February end.
The names considered for the post of DGP are that of A.N. Roy, who is now managing director of Maharashtra State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation, S. Chakravarty, the director general of Home Guards and Civil Defense, and J.D. Virkar, director general of Anti-Corruption Bureau. Roy has earlier been police commissioner in Mumbai.
