Ever since the bifurcation of combined state of Andhra Pradesh, Governor E S L Narasimhan had been officiating as a common Governor for both the states.
He will be discharging his duties as Andhra Pradesh Governor on Wednesday and will continue for Telangana for some more time, till the Centre appoints a new Governor sooner or later.
During his tenure, Narasimhan has faced severe criticism from Andhra leaders, cutting across all political parties that he has been favouring the Telangana Rashtra Samithi government.
He has developed a strange affinity towards TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekahr Rao and his son K T Rama Rao.
In fact, KCR had been making regular visits to Raj Bhavan to appease Narasimhan, so that there is no resistance from the latter for his decisions.
Narasimhan also has been praising KCR and his government at every given opportunity and there were occasions when he pulled up the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders whenever they lodged a complaint against the TRS government.
But on Wednesday, for the first time, Narasimhan rejected a bill bulldozed by the KCR government in the assembly. KCR convened a special session of the assembly for two days only to pass the New Municipal Act, which he claimed was drafted by him personally to give more powers to the municipalities.
He got the bill passed amidst protests from the Congress members with the help of his brute majority in the House and sent it to the Governor for approval. But Narasimhan rejected the bill and sent it back to the government, much to the chagrin of KCR.
Apparently, Narasimhan felt that the Municipal Act had a number of loopholes which cannot stand the legal scrutiny.
He conveyed his objections to the Telangana chief minister, who definitely had not expected such a move from Narasimhan, as he thought the Governor would blindly sign the bill.
Now, it remains to be seen how KCR will react to Narasimhan’s unusual move.