New Delhi, July 18 (IANS): Uttarakhand Governor B.L. Joshi was late Saturday transferred and appointed as the Uttar Pradesh governor in place of T.V. Rajeshwar, whose term has expired, a Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said. Veteran Congress leader Margaret Alva was named to succeed Joshi.

Alva had lost the April-May Lok Sabha elections from Karnataka's Uttara Kannada constituency. A few months before the elections, she had been sacked as a Congress general secretary for stating that the party ticket was "sold" during the state assembly elections in May.

One other new governor was named - former central minister Jagannath Pahadia replacing A.R. Kidwai on the completion of his term in Haryana - and three others were shifted.

Jharkhand Governor Syed Sibtey Razi has been transferred and appointed the governor of Assam "for the remainder of his term" and has been replaced by Nagaland Governor K. Sankaranarayanan, the communique said.

The Assam Raj Bhawan had been vacant since incumbent Shiv Charan Mathur died in a hospital here June 25.

Devendra Nath Dwivedi will take over as the Gujarat governor when incumbent Nawal Kishore Sharma completes his term July 23, the communique added.

Both Rajeshwar, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau, and Razi had courted controversey during their terms, with the former being involved in frequent run-ins with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and her predecessor Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Razi was in the news for all the wrong reasons when he last year swore in Jharkhand Mukti Morcha head Shibu Soren as chief minister of a government that was propped up with heavy outside support even though he was not a member of the state assembly. Soren resigned earlier this year after failing to get elected to the assembly.

It was widely expected that H.R. Bharadwaj, who was dropped as the law minister when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance assumed power for a second time after the general elections, would be given a gubernatorial assignment. The name of Shivraj Patil, dropped as home minister in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, had also been doing the rounds.