Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 1 Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday ended his press briefing quickly, saying he has to rush to receive incoming Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar at the airport here.
This comes at a time when on December 29 as Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who was transferred to Bihar after more than five years here, left, neither Vijayan nor any of his cabinet colleagues came to bid goodbye.
When the media asked about Vijayan and his team's absence, Khan, known for his amiable interactions with the press, deflected the question by saying that the nation was mourning the demise of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
With neither Vijayan nor his cabinet colleagues turning up, Chief Secretary Sarada Muraleedharan and a junior colleague visited Khan's official residence to extend their wishes.
The differences between Khan and Vijayan often played out publicly, with the two barely exchanging glances at official functions. A major flashpoint was Khan's resistance to the Kerala government's attempts to influence the functioning of state universities. The tensions escalated when he refused to sign key ordinances and bills, prompting the state government to approach the Supreme Court for intervention.
The strained relationship between Vijayan and outgoing Khan took a new low as neither Vijayan nor any of his cabinet colleagues turned up for Khan's farewell and BJP leader V. Muraleedharan termed "unbecoming" how Vijayan and his cabinet colleagues behaved with the head of the state.
Khan also had confrontations with student activists from the ruling CPI-M-affiliated SFI, once stepping out of his car to directly confront protesting students.
Earlier in the day, Arlekar, before leaving for Kerala paid a quick visit to the residence of Goa Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, who hails from Kerala.
"My job is to assist the Kerala government and I am not going for any confrontation. I have always adopted such a position. My visit to the Goa Governor is just to understand things," he said.
On Thursday, Arlekar will be sworn in by the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court Nitin Madhukar Jamdar at the official residence of the Governor here.
All eyes are on Arlekar, a seasoned politician from Goa and the Governor of Bihar and though he has made his position clear, time will tell how things pan out between him and the Vijayan government.
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