New Delhi, August 28
Vinod Kumar Duggal tonight resigned as Manipur Governor, becoming the ninth Governor appointed by the UPA regime to quit since the NDA government came to power in May.

Duggal, who holds additional charge of Mizoram as well, arrived in Delhi and called on President Pranab Mukherjee where he handed over the resignation.

“I have submitted my resignation to the President,” said Duggal, a former Union Home Secretary.

On whether he was asked to quit, Duggal (69), who took charge on December 31, said: “I have resigned on my own accord.” Duggal, who served as Home Secretary from 2005 to 2007, is the second Governor to have put in his papers this week. Sheila Dikshit resigned as Governor of Kerala on August 26.

With this, the 1968-batch IAS officer becomes the ninth Governor to have resigned since the Modi government came to power.

Five UPA-appointed Governors — MK Narayanan (West Bengal), Ashwani Kumar (Nagaland), BL Joshi (UP), BV Wanchoo (Goa) and Shekhar Dutt (Chhattisgarh), have already resigned after being nudged by the NDA government.

V Purushothaman had resigned as the Governor of Mizoram after he was transferred to Nagaland in July, while Masharashtra Governor K Sankaranarayanan tendered his resignation on August 24 after he was shifted to Mizoram.

After the new government assumed office, two Governors, including 87-year-old Kamla Beniwal, who had a running battle with Modi when he was Gujarat Chief Minister when she was Governor of the state, were sacked. Lt Governor of Puducherry Virendra Kataria, a former Congress leader, was also sacked.

Uttarakhand Governor Aziz Qureshi has challenged Centre's moves to ease him out of office, bringing the controversy over removal of UPA-appointed Governors under judicial lens. — PTI