Security czar M K Narayanan made West Bengal governor

Reshuffling its state governors, the Congress-led union government has decided that national security advisor M K Narayanan will be the new governor of West Bengal.

His replacement as Nationa Security Advisor has not been announced, Shiv Shankar Menon, who recently retired as foreign secretary, widely tipped to be the new NSA.

An official announcement is expected today, but it is more or less known that Jharkhand governor K Sankaranarayanan will be the new governor of Maharashtra, while E S L Narasimhan will be governor of Andhra Pradesh in place of N D Tiwari, who recently resigned.

Former home minister Shivraj Patil has been given Punjab, and former defence secretary Shekhar Dutt will replace S C Jamir as the new Chhattisgarh governor. Congress veteran Urmilaben Patel is set to take charge as Himachal Pradesh governor.

Former Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief and current governor of Himachal Pradesh Prabha Rao is likely to be shifted to Rajasthan to fill up the vacancy caused by the death of incumbent S K Singh, while All India Congress Committee general secretary Mohsina Kidwai is likely to be made governor of Haryana.

Reports say that the home ministry was geared up to send the proposals to Rashtrapati Bhavan for presidential assent on Friday, but it was put off following a direction from the prime minister's office late in the evening.

The high-powered Congress core committee was also reported to have discussed giving ample representation to the minority communities in the new gubernatorial line-up.

Among the names discussed were the former railway minister C K Jaffer Sharief, Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee chief and former union minister Saifuddin Soz, and a less-known Kerala Congressman, Farooq Maraikair.