But he became controversial in political circles because of the blatant manner in which he tried to protect Laloo Prasad Yadav in the fodder scam.

The CBI had submitted the chargesheet against Laloo and other politicians in the fodder scam case RC 64 for his sanction in August last year. Kidwai sat over the file. He neither raised any query before the CBI which would ``at least give the impression that he was serious and was going through the file'' nor did he deny approval to the investigating agency in going ahead with the case.

His nominating of a brother of Chief Minister Rabri Devi, Sadhu Yadav, to the Legisative Councilalso put a question mark on his role.

Though the nine seats were earmarked for social activists, he preferred to be guided by the dictates of Laloo Prasad and nominated all the nine political leaders who were recommended by the RJD president.

But within a week of his nominating Sadhu Yadav, the decision was challenged in the High Court by a social worker, D K Vidyarthi. The writ filed a couple of days back, charges the Governor with flouting constitutional norms and provisions.

This was the second term of Kidwai in Bihar as Governor, and during both the terms he remained embroiled in controversies.

While going back after the expiry of his first term, he had allegedly taken away precious wood from the Saranda jungles of Chhotanagpur.

It is now being alleged that in the past four years, nearly Rs 2.75 crore had been drawn over and above the budgetary provsions for renovating the Governor's House. This was revealed during an audit conducted by the Accountant General.

"State Govt should havebeen consulted"PATNA: A cautious Laloo Prasad Yadav accepted the removal of Governor A R Kidwai, saying it was in the ``discretionary powers'' of the Centre but observed that in conformity with normal practice, the State Government should have been consulted.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief said it was unfortunate that the BJP Government had acted unilaterally without consulting the State Govt which was against the spirit of federalism. Hence the move was ``unconstitutional'', he said.

He strongly denied that Kidwai had during his tenure helped him in any manner. He said the Union Government had succumbed to the pressure tactics of the BJP and Samata leaders in resorting to this step.

Laloo added that Kidwai had not provided any help to him in the fodder scam and it would be wrong to link his removal with his not giving sanction for prosecution in fodder scam case RC 64.

He said Kidwai in fact had responded to the CBI move by giving permission for his prosecution in RC 20.