Center asks Madhya Pradesh governor Yadav to step down

Agencies

new delhi: Hours after the Special Task Force (STF) filed an FIR against Madhya Pradesh Gov. Ram Naresh Yadav on Tuesday for his alleged involvement in the examination and recruitment scam, sources said the Center has asked him to step down.
According to a government official, the decision was taken by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
“We were waiting for a report from the state government on the status of the FIR. When the minister was convinced that Yadav had been named in the case, it was decided to give him a dignified exit,” said a senior government official on condition of anonymity.
“We decided not to take any harsh decision but in the wake of this corruption case, we gave him the option of resigning,” he said, adding that New Delhi also has the option of removing a governor.
“The center has asked Yadav to consider tendering his resignation for the respect of the post,” said the official.
Yadav was set to complete his term in September 2016.
Yadav has been booked for cheating and under the Prevention of Corruption Act, DSP Baghel said.
The action against Yadav came days after the STF submitted his name in a sealed envelope and sought the guidance of the High Court-appointed Special Investigation Team in proceeding against a “high dignitary.”
About a fortnight back, Yadav’s son Shailesh was named in a related charge sheet submitted to a local court. Dhanraj Yadav, the governor’s former officer on Special Duty (OSD), was also arrested in April last year in a related offense.
However, the Congress leader refused to step down despite persistent demands from his own party leaders in Madhya Pradesh, who accused him of being hand in glove with the BJP government.
Following news of the FIR against Yadav, the Congress took to the streets today, with some trying to gherao the Raj Bhawan, demanding that Yadav should quit immediately. Over the last few days, the Congress has raised the pitch on Yadav’s resignation, mainly because it wants to use it to target Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who has been accused of involvement in the scam by the opposition.
There was ruckus in the assembly which was debating the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address. The opposition wanted the government to make a statement in the house on whether an FIR was actually registered against the governor or not.
The Congress MLAs argued that if an FIR had been lodged, there was no point in debating the motion and claimed that the state was staring at a constitutional crisis.
The assembly saw heated exchanges between the treasury benches and the Congress MLAs, especially when Chouhan rose to reply to the debate.