Who is going to be the new Punjab governor?

New Delhi: Speculation has been rife within Punjab over the appointment of a new state governor after the sudden resignation of Banwarilal Purohit on Saturday.

Purohit, 83, resigned from the dual posts of the Punjab governor and the administrator of Chandigarh, citing personal reasons. A day before he quit, Purohit had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and later President Droupadi Murmu.

However, the rumour mills are abuzz in Punjab over the reasons for his exit with many suggesting that the central leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was unhappy with him over his handling of the mayoral elections in Chandigarh and others saying that he had been ineffective in keeping a check on the functioning of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

Many names are doing the rounds as Purohit's possible replacement. Since Saturday night, the supporters of former chief minister Captain Aamarinder Singh have been pinning hopes on his appointment despite Punjab being his home state.

However, political analysts told NewsDrum that Captain's chances are nil given the traidition of not appointing governor from the same state.

It is also being speculated that former Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Gujarat Dahyaji Gobarji Vanzara, popularly known as DG Vanzara, could be rehabilitated as the governor.

He was in judicial custody from 2007 till 2015 on charges of having conducted a series of extrajudicial killings/fake encounters while heading the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS). However, he got a clean chit in February 2020 after being acquitted by courts in the Sohrabuddin case in 2017.

The other names in circulation are Union Minister Narayan Rane, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and former top cop Kiran Bedi.