Padmanabhaiah, Sachar Mamata favourites for governor

KOLKATA: A week after the departure of Gopalkrishna Gandhi from Raj Bhawan, the countdown to appointing his successor has begun. Given the murky political situation in Bengal, Raj Bhawan is likely to play a crucial role in the coming days as the state prepares for 2011 Assembly election. And Trinamool Congress is keen on getting a friendly person in the hot seat, banking on the changed political equation at the Centre.
A senior Trinamool leader told TOI that the names of former bureaucrat K Padmanabhaiah and former chief justice of Delhi high court Rajindar Sachar "are being proposed". Mohsina Kidwai's name is also doing the rounds in the corridors of power. Trinamool leaders are tight-lipped on whether party chief Mamata Banerjee has raised this "crucial issue" with the Congress high command.

Mamata is well aware that she will have to keep up the pressure on CPM and the Left Front government before the electoral battle for Writers' Buildings begins.

Trinamool has picked its favourites well. Rajindar Sachar's report on the "plight of minorities" in Bengal turned out to be a trump card for the Opposition. The report which chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and other Left leaders have often called biased' added to the discomfort of the ruling Left after the land acquisition controversy in minority-dominated areas like Nandigram and Bhangar. It led to massive erosion in its vote bank and was a major reason behind the recent electoral debacles.

Sources say the Trinamool chief shares a good rapport with K Padmanabhaiah, who was Union home secretary during the NDA regime when Trinamool was a partner. From those days in the late '90s, Mamata Banerjee has been vocal about the "deteriorating law and order" in the state.

The Centre, however, is yet to sound out the state government on the next governor, as it normally does before making the appointment formal. Whatever the decision, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to play a key role in the appointment of the Bengal governor.