Vyapam Scam Accused Governor on Way Out? A Matter of Time, Say Sources

New Delhi: By the time Home Minister Rajnath Singh drove out of Rashtrapati Bhawan after meeting President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday evening, the buzz had changed from whether Madhya Pradesh Governor Ram Naresh Yadav would be asked to go, to when.

Also whether the Centre would remove Mr Yadav or save him that ignominy by allowing him to resign, after the Supreme Court on Thursday issued a notice to him on a petition on his alleged role in the Vyapam scam. Sources said that there was a possibility on the matter will be taken after PM Modi returns from his six-nation tour on Monday.

The Supreme Court also sent a notice to the BJP-led Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government on the petition, which challenges the quashing by the state High Court of a First Information Report or FIR against the Governor.

It has four weeks to act - the court's deadline for a reply - but sources said, the BJP-led government wants to display decisiveness in the matter.

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi out of the country, Rajnath Singh is officiating as head of government. Sources said he briefed the President yesterday and discussed the government's options with him.  

Those options are limited; the Supreme Court will soon also hear a petition seeking Mr Yadav's removal.

Sources said the Centre had decided in January that Mr Yadav, a Congressman before he became Governor, must go. But that would have made its Chief Minister in the state Shivraj Singh Chouhan more vulnerable to the attacks of the Congress, which wants his resignation after an alarming number of deaths of people linked to the Vyapam scam.

The Supreme Court on Thursday transferred investigation into the scam and the deaths to the CBI.

Governor Yadav was named as an accused in an FIR filed by the Madhya Pradesh police, but the High Court had ruled that the Governor could not be investigated while in office. Many of the others named with Mr Yadav in the case are now in jail.

Sources said the Congress on Thursday phoned Mr Yadav and asked him to resign. The Governor, they said, promised to think about it.