Kerala Governor Sheila Dikshit resigned on Tuesday, two days after another UPA-appointee K Shankaranarayanan quit as governor of Maharashtra. This has cleared most of the key governors appointed by the previous UPA administration, allowing the NDA a free hand to appoint its aging leaders to the plum posts. 82-year old Kalyan Singh was appointed as governor of Rajasthan on Monday, along with three others for Maharashtra, Karnataka and Goa.

Sheila Dikshit had been appointed by the UPA in March just before the model code of conduct came into force for the general election. She quit as Kerala governor after her meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

“I have resigned, I did it yesterday (Monday) and I don’t want to comment further. I have followed my heart and I didn’t do it under any pressure,” Dikshit said according to the Indian Express.

She is the eighth governor to have resigned since Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the election, including MK Narayanan (West Bengal), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), BL Joshi (UP), BV Wanchoo (Goa) and Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh).

Two governors resigned when they were transferred to another state: Vakkom B Purushothaman, the governor of Mizoram, resigned in July after he was transferred to Nagaland, while Maharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan resigned on Sunday after he was shunted to Mizoram.

One UPA appointee – Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi – has challenged the alleged pressure to ease him out of office, by taking the matter to the Supreme Court. The NDA administration denied last Friday that it had ever asked Qureshi to quit.

Only two UPA appointees were actually sacked: Kamla Beniwal (former Governor of Gujarat) and Virendra Kataria (former Lt Governor of Puducherry).

Meanwhile, the NDA administration has allowed several governors to complete the remainder of their terms, including Jagannath Pahadia (Haryana), HR Bharadwaj (Karnataka) and Margaret Alva (Rajasthan).

To Learn More:

Sheila too quits: I followed my heart, there was no pressure (The Indian Express)

After Uttarakhand governor Aziz Qureshi moves Supreme Court, Centre says it never asked him to quit (PTI)

Govt Undermines the Office of State Governor By Targeting UPA Appointees (by Karan Singh, AllGov India)