In return, Home Minister L K Advani assured Basu that he would be consulted before a new governor is appointed to West Bengal when Kidwai's term ends on August 12 this year.

Kidwai replaces K Raghunath Reddy whose term ended almost three years ago but who stayed on in West Bengal on an ad hoc basis at Basu's request.

With this, the BJP-led Government has resolved what could have been a tricky problem for it. It has been wanting to replace Kidwai who is perceived as sympathetic to former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Yadav.

However, the Government was hesitant because it did not want the transfer to acquire communal overtones. As a compromise, it mooted the idea of shifting Kidwai to West Bengal for the remainder of his tenure so that a ``non-partisan'' Governor could be appointed in Bihar.

It is still not clear who will replaceKidwai. The names doing the rounds in BJP circles include that of senior vice president Sunder Singh Bhandari. Government sources said that a decision will be taken in consultation with the Samata Party which is the BJP's ally in Bihar. The Government has also to decide on the Jammu and Kashmir Governor. It toyed with two names, former DGP Punjab Julio Ribeiro and BJP Delhi State chief Kedar Nath Sahani.

However, J&K Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah is believed to have suggested the name of former Prime Minister I K Gujral's principal secretary N N Vohra.

Meanwhile, Advani this morning announced that the Government will not effect any more gubernatorial changes unless they become due. ``The criticism that the governors appointed by the previous government would be changed were baseless and except Gujarat no other governor would be replaced and would continue till the expiry of their terms,'' he told correspondents at the CISF Raising Day ceremony.

He said all governors would be appointed in consultationwith the Chief ministers of states, an assurance which he repeated to Basu.