According to a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique issued on Friday, former cabinet secretary Vinod Pande will be the new Governor of Bihar and Gujarat industrialist Viren Shah of West Bengal. Ved Marwah, former IPS officer, has been sent to Manipur while F F R Jacob, currently Governor of Goa, will now be the Punjab Governor. Faisal Ahmed, former Planning Commission member, replaces Jacob in Goa. But what is causing concern to the North Block is its helplessness in zeroing in on the fresh Karnataka Governor.

Bakht has reportedly turned down the offer to head southward. But sources disclose, the Governor of a northernstate has approached Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with a request to "shifted" him to Karnataka. Vajpayee, however, did not warm up to the offer, it is learnt.

The search for the Karnataka Governor has now led the decision-makers to Janakrishna Murthy, senior BJP vice-president, their next choice after Bakht. But here too, concrete outcome eludes them.

Incidentally, the Union Home Ministry stepped on the toes of several important BJP allies with their choice of governors. Railways Minister Mamata Bannerjee, it was learnt, had met Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Thursday evening and protested against the move to appoint Shah as the West Bengal Governor.

However, Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, who had opposed Shah's name last year, on Thursday told reporters that Advani had discussed it with him and he accepted the proposal this time.