Arunachal Governor's sacking seems imminent; Rajnath Singh meets President

New Delhi: Sacking of a defiant Arunachal Pradesh Governor Jyoti Prasad Rajkhowa seems imminent with Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who met President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday, believed to have conveyed that his continuance in the post has become untenable.

During the 20-minute meeting, the Home Minister is learnt to have told the President that the central government has lost confidence in Rajkhowa and the only way to remove him is to "withdraw the pleasure of the President".

The Home Minister's meeting with the President came after Rajkhowa refused to step down despite a nudge by the Centre to put in his papers after the Supreme Court passed serious strictures against him over the dismissal of the Congress government last year.

However, it is immediately not known what the President told the Home Minister.

Sources said Rajkhowa's dismissal may come as early as next evening when the two-day special session of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly, which has been convened to ratify the Goods and Services Tax (GST), gets over.

A defiant Rajkhowa had said he would not step down but was ready to be sacked.

"I want the President to dismiss me. I will not resign. Let the President express his displeasure. Let the government use provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution," the Governor had told a Guwahati-based TV news channel on Monday.

Rajkhowa said he had been asked to resign "on health grounds" weeks after the Supreme Court had restored the Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh and censured him.