In AP Raj Bhavan, Narasimhan is tension-free

UPA-appointed governors like Uttarakhand’s Aziz Qureshi may be bracing for a legal battle against the Centre’s “nudge” but an exception is E S L Narasimhan, who has a special task given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi: To smoothen the bifurcation process of Andhra Pradesh.

Narasimhan, as the gubernatorial head of the two states, is due to meet Modi on Friday to brief him on the progress of the bifurcation process, which has seen frayed tempers on both sides.

As directed by Modi, Narasimhan, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau, has been working behind the scene to resolve the differences between the chief ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, K Chandrasekhar Rao and N Chandrababu Naidu respectively.

In his first meeting with Narasimhan after becoming prime minister, Modi had told the governor not to worry about his tenure in office though he was appointed by the UPA and instead focus on the task of removing hurdles and irritants in the bifurcation of the state, sources said.

Modi had even shared his personal mobile number with him for seeking any direction to resolve issues.

Therefore, the sources said, Narasimhan’s discussion with Modi on Friday will take place in the wake of first success of the governor to bring together KCR and Naidu face to face.

According to Narasimhan, who briefed President Pranab Mukherjee and Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad in the last two days, both KCR and Naidu have moved forward. They have discussed three key issues — sharing of legislature buildings, distribution of employees and sharing of state-level educational institutions.

Jaitley assured Narasimhan on Thursday that the Centre will back his efforts to ensure a smooth transition and all issues pertaining to the distribution of financial resources would be settled without discriminating either state.

Being a former IPS officer from Andhra Pradesh cadre, Narasimhan has involved the chief secretaries of the two states and other officials, too, for sorting out issues pertaining to 50,000 government employees and joint sharing of 127 institutions by the two states till they create separate bodies for themselves.