No customary new year address by Kerala Governor in Assembly

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 14 Deviating from the norm, the customary address of Kerala Governor to the state legislature on the opening day of a new session in the new year will not take place in 2023 with the state cabinet on Wednesday deciding to extend the Assembly session beyond this year.

The development comes a day after the Pinarayi Vijayan government passed a Bill removing the Kerala Governor as the chancellor of 14 universities in the state.

As per the general norm, after one session of the Assembly ends, the cabinet informs the governor that the session has been prorogued, but on Wednesday, it decided to continue the present session.

This time, with Khan and the Vijayan government not even on talking terms, this act of extending the session to the new year was on the cards and has happened now.

Hence the 7th session will now continue into the new year and will end with the presentation of the budget for the 2023-24 fiscal.

Incidentally, the present session that began in the first week of December was solely called to pass one Bill which removes the Governor as the chancellor of the 14 universities in the state.

Vijayan was peeved after Khan refused to sign an Ordinance on the same topic and to put pressure on Khan, the special assembly session was called and the Bill was passed.

In between Khan tried to play the Christmas diplomacy when he invited Vijayan and his cabinet ministers for a evening get together which will happen later in the day at the lawns of the sprawling Raj Bhavan- the official residence of Khan, but Vijayan said a firm no.

The difference of opinion which creeped in between the head of the state and head of the government instead of diminishing, has intensified.

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