With the likely departure of the Congress-led UPA-II government, top law officers of the country are also all set to be changed as they were political appointees.
Attorney general Goolam E Vahanvati and solicitor general Mohan Parasaran are expected to put in their papers soon, two senior-most advocates of the country, who are considered to be in close proximity with BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, are turning out to be the front-runners for the key posts.
According to a top source, senior advocates Mukul Rohtagi is in the race to become attorney general of India and Ranjit Kumar is in the fray to be the solicitor general.
Rohtagi was one of the additional solicitor generals during Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government at the Centre.
He being the old hand of BJP has been handling several leading cases defending the party and government, including the Babri Masjid demolition case in Supreme Court.
Rohtagi, who defended politicians, including Jayalalithaa in corruption cases, has also defended the Modi government in several cases.
In addition, the noted counsel defended BJP's general secretary Varun Gandhi against invocation of preventive detention under the National Securiry Act against him for his alleged provocative speech by Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh in 2011.
Recently, Rohtagi appeared for yoga guru Baba Ramdev in a case for transfer of all cases against him for his "honeymoon" remark against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.
Kumar, who had defended the Gujarat government in almost all cases pertaining to the state before the Supreme Court, had handled the cases of Godhra communal riots, Best Bakery and Snoopgate in which the state government was centre of contention.
When contacted, Kumar declined to comment at this stage saying, "I have no clue. I don't want to comment at this stage."
Rohtagi, however, was not available for comment. During Vajpayee's regime, constitutional expert Soli Sorabjee was appointed as AG and corporate lawyer Harish Salve was his junior as SG.
Following the Godhra riots in Gujarat in 2002, Salve had resigned from the post.
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