Capt Amarinder Singh to replace BS Koshyari as Guv?

Mumbai: Amid rampant curiosity on the issue of Bhagat Singh Koshyari’s successor as Maharashtra Governor, reports are now emerging that former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh could well be the next occupant of Raj Bhavan.

Notably, Sumitra Mahajan of the Bharatiya Janata Party had also been rumoured to be the next governor before her name fell out of discussions on the gubernatorial race.

Captain Singh’s name has come to the fore after Koshyari, who has been in the eye of a storm over several of his comments over the course of the past few months, finally informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi of his desire to step down during the latter’s visit to Mumbai.

Koshyari on January 23 issued a statement to the press, which read: “It was an absolute honour and privilege for me to serve as the Rajya Sevak or Rajyapal of a great State like Maharashtra—the land of Saints, Social reformers and valiant fighters.”

Koshyari has been facing intense pressure from the opposition for allegedly insulting Maratha king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj by referring to him as an “idol of olden times” and also social reformers Mahatma Phule and Savitribai Phule by questioning the age at which they married. Last year, Koshyari had also got into trouble for allegedly insulting Marathi-speaking people with his comment that Mumbai would not remain the country's financial capital if Gujaratis and Marwaris left the city.

On the other hand, Captain Singh, a longtime veteran of the Congress had split from the grand old party to form his own outfit, the Punjab Lok Congress, in November 2021. After a failed attempt to contest the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election in alliance with the BJP, the PLC merged with the BJP on September 19, 2022.

Captain Singh had also been tipped to be the BJP’s vice-presidential nominee—a nomination that eventually went to Jagdeep Dhankhar. So, a residency in Maharashtra’s Raj Bhavan could well be an olive branch from the BJP, to a man who once claimed: “If we want to see a future in Punjab, we need to join the BJP.”