Setting the stage for a fresh confrontation between Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit and the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the former on Tuesday declined to clear the appointment of cardiologist Gurpreet Wander as Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) Faridkot.

Sources said the Governor, who is the Chancellor of the university, has returned the file for Dr. Wander’s appointment saying the government violated the rules by recommending only one name for the VC’s post. He has asked the government to send a panel of three candidates for the selection to the post.

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Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, however,  said there were no differences between the state government and Governor of Punjab. He said  the Punjab government is against inflation, unemployment, mafia and other maladies but it has cordial ties with the Governor.

Mann said if the Governor has desired, the state government will send the panel of three names for appointment of Vice Chancellor to him adding that otherwise the usual tradition had been that the Governor gives consent to the name proposed by the state government.

The Punjab government had on 30 September appointed Dr Wander, as the new VC of BFUHS. The post of the VC became vacant in July this year after the previous VC Dr Raj Bahadur resigned from his post in protest following an incident when health and medical education minister Chetan Singh Jauramajra made him lie-down on a dirty bed during a visit to the varsity. As Bhadur didn’t take back his resignation even after the request from the CM office, the government accepted his resignation and appointed a new VC.

It is worth mentioning that earlier in September, the Governor had withdrawn an order summoning a special session of the Punjab Assembly on 22 September to table a confidence motion citing rules.

Later, he also questioned the government about the business it wanted to take up in the legislative Assembly.  Following this, the Mann government had to summon the session of state Assembly on 27 September to discuss “various issues” pertaining to Punjab. While the Opposition parties had welcomed the decision, AAP leaders, including the CM had  criticised Purohit calling it an attack on democracy.