Eight years out of power is a long time in the wilderness. All the more so for a party like the Congress, which for more than 40 years had a near monopoly on power at the Centre.

Back in the Treasury benches after a long break, the party appears to be in a tearing hurry to make up for lost time. Its initial targets have been the Raj Bhavans across the country. In the six months that it has been in office, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has juggled governors in at least 17 states, using the post to reward the ultra faithfuls or quarantine troublesome leaders. So if there is an out-of-the-woodwork politician like Pratibha Patil in Rajasthan, there are active frontbenchers like S.M. Krishna in Maharashtra, Sushil Kumar Shinde in Andhra Pradesh and S.C. Jamir in Goa. All the three former chief ministers have been moved out of their respective states only to ensure intra-party truce in their home states.

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SHUNTED: Intra-party politics saw Shinde (centre) in Hyderabad

For a party that runs a coalition government-which necessarily entails seeking the opinion of almost every alliance partner-the Congress managed to get its own people into the Raj Bhavans easily by striking swiftly and in phases. First changes were within a month of the UPA's coming to power. Even when it made piecemeal changes later, the party did away with the normal courtesies and managed the changes without informing its allies. It was not until it tricked the Nationalist Congress Party out of the chief minister's post in Maharashtra by despatching incumbent chief minister Shinde as governor to the Hyderabad Raj Bhavan did Sharad Pawar's party realise that allies were not being consulted at all in the appointment to the Raj Bhavan.

LOYAL REWARDS

Gandhi family loyalist BUTA SINGH lost the election but still ended up as governor of poll-bound Bihar. R.L. BHATIA also lost the election but is now Kerala governor. BALRAM JAKHAR After losing the Lok Sabha poll has been accommodated in the Bhopal Raj Bhavan. B.L. JOSHI and R. THAKUR were made governors by a diktat from 10 Janpath. NAWAL KISHORE SHARMA bit the dust in the elections and was moved to Gujarat Raj Bhavan for truce in Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee. SHOWN THE DOOR A hardcore RSS worker, KAILASHPATI MISHRA's days were numbered the moment the UPA took office. KEDAR NATH SAHNI was too much of a dyed in the wool pracharak for the UPA's comfort. A former BJP vice-president, VISHNU KANT SHASTRI was forced out of the Lucknow Raj Bhavan. BABU PARMANAND had no option but to quit after openly canvassing for votes in Haryana in the name of A.B. Vajpayee. SITTING PRETTY Former BJP vice-president and business tycoon VIREN SHAH has stayed on in Kolkata through three regime changes. Appointed by the UF regime, M.M. Jacob in Meghalaya has survived three changes in government.

By the time allies woke up to the unilateral changes being made-Pawar discovered and denounced the Congress conduct only after Krishna's appointment to the Mumbai Raj Bhavan-the Congress had done its deed. It had its men-and a lone woman-appointed in almost all the major states (see box). Just a handful of political appointments like Justice V.S. Kokje (Himachal Pradesh), T.N. Chaturvedi (Karnataka), Ved Marwah (Jharkhand) and Viren Shah (West Bengal) were left. The rest of the Raj Bhavans were occupied by ex-armymen like S.K. Sinha (Jammu and Kashmir), Ajai Singh (Assam) and K.M. Seth (Chhattisgarh) or retired police and intelligence officers like D.N. Sahay in Tripura and Shyamal Dutta in Nagaland.

UPA allies are belatedly reacting in horror to the lack of consultation by the big brother, but the Congress cleverly couched the first phase of gubernatorial reshuffles by giving an ideological colour. Within a month of coming to power, the party made six appointments, sacked four governors, all of whom were RSS pracharaks-K.N. Sahni (Goa), Babu Parmanand (Haryana), Vishnu Kant Shastri (Uttar Pradesh) and Kailashpati Mishra (Gujarat). This was what it called the detoxification of Raj Bhavans. Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil unabashedly declared that governors must be on the same ideological wavelength as the Centre.

That was enough to raise the hackles of even former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He denounced the removal of governors saying that in his six years in office, he had never curtailed the tenure of governors. In 1998, however, the BJP made six appointments-governors of Gujarat, Goa and Mizoram and three lieutenant-governors-for specific reasons.

By giving an ideological twist to the abrupt removal of NDA-appointed governors, the Congress certainly wowed the left parties. But when it came to the appointment of successors, the Left appeared to be less enthusiastic. "Why must the Congress behave just like the BJP and repeat all its mistakes? Governors should be people of eminence," says CPI leader D. Raja.

In the second round of gubernatorial appointments, the Congress gave leeway to its allies like the RJD and the DMK, easing out Rama Jois in Bihar and P.S. Rammohan Rao in Tamil Nadu. In fact, it was Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa's failed litigation bid to retain Rao in the state that opened the floodgates for the mass ejection of governors. BJP appointees Jois, Rao and O.P. Verma (Punjab) put in their papers without a whimper.

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RELUCTANT LEADER: Krishna would rather play politics in Karnataka

The Left's suggestion that the Raj Bhavans be reserved for the people of eminence sounds good in principle. The reality is somewhat different. It is all about adjustments. The Congress has accommodated several senior leaders who had lost the elections or could not be inducted in the UPA Government. Among them are Nawal Kishore Sharma (Gujarat), Balram Jakhar (Madhya Pradesh), R.L. Bhatia (Kerala) and A.R. Kidwai (Haryana). Others like General S.F. Rodrigues (Punjab) Rameshwar Thakur (Orissa) and B.L. Joshi (Delhi) and Buta Singh (Bihar) came in on the strength of their ties with the Gandhi family.

Not all of them were ready to pack their bags and make the switch from being a politician to a governor. Krishna was in China when the Government last week announced his appointment. He rushed back to Delhi and is still awaiting a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Should he get to meet her, it is unlikely he will be given an option.

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