Who wanted to topple Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh governments?

Aziz Qureshi, who was recently removed as Governor of Mizoram, has claimed that he received “feelers“ to topple the Congress and Samajwadi Party-led governments of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh respectively when he was serving as Governor in these states.

Qureshi, who formally rejoined the Congress on Thursday, declined to reveal the names of those who sent had him the alleged feelers, saying he will do that at the right time. “They were politicians,“ was all he offered.

“I was asked to dislodge the Harish Rawat government when I was Uttrakhand Governor.After that, I was asked to remove the Akhilesh Yadav government when I was the (acting) Governor of UP through feelers. I was told that if I did so, I will continue as Governor for the full term,“ Qureshi told reporters at the state Congress headquarters.He added that he was also offered a second tenure as Governor in lieu of this `job’. However, I prefer to work honestly, and I never discriminated against anyone,“ Qureshi, 75, said.He claimed that when he was the UP Governor (June 17-July 21, 2014), then Union home secretary Anil Goswami asked him to put in his papers after his remarks on rape stirred a controversy.Qureshi had said that incidents of rapes could not be stopped even if the entire police force was deployed for women’s safety and only God could check such crimes.“Goswami had noted that my remarks had embarrassed the government. I told Goswami that he was not the right person to ask me to resign.Rather, the prime minister and home minister should talk to me on the issue,“ he claimed.

Saying that he was removed from the post of Mizoram Governor in an unceremonious manner, Qureshi said, “This has never happened in the past.Such an act has no place in civilized society. It was a one-line order which said ceased to be the Governor of Mizoram.It came at a time the Supreme Court had already served notices to parties concerned in response to my petition. The apex court had referred my matter to a larger bench of five judges,“ he said.