Who's On Board, Guv?

Two prominent Congress losers in the recent Lok Sabha polls, Balram Jakhar and R.L. Bhatia, have been appointed governors of MP and Kerala respectively. These first appointments give enough indication that the Manmohan Singh government has set the ball rolling to see off the BJP gubernatorial appointees in other states too like Maharashtra, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, UP, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh and Assam. It is not clear what mechanism would be put into place to make the nda-appointed governors step down. Not surprisingly, lobbying is already on among Congress bigwigs out of the race at the Centre and now keen to enjoy a bit of time in the shade.