HAVING sworn in three prime ministers in less than a year, President Shankar Dayal Sharma has, by any reckoning, presided over a tumultuous and controversy-strewn phase in coalition politics. Now, at the fag end of his tenure, the president has himself sparked off a controversy by becoming the first head of state to convene a conference of governors where leaders of major political parties, including the Janata Dal, Congress, BJP, CPI, CPI(M), Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) and DMK, have been invited. The two-day conclave kicks off on June 2 and political parties are already quibbling over whether the president has overstepped convention in organising such a meet.