Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has come out strongly against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan over the leaking of his letter addressed to Khan.

The Chief Minister had written a letter to the Governor protesting his decision to disallow convening a special session of the state Assembly over a resolution on the farm laws. The Chief Minister had written that the Governor does not have any Constitutional mandate to reject the recommendation of a democratically-elected government.

Governor Arif Mohammed Khan responded that the Chief Minister’s Office had intimated that the letter was of private nature but was surprised on seeing the contents being splashed across television screens. The Governor however stuck to his stand that there was no necessity to convene a special session of the house as a special session is already coming up on January 8 and that there was no urgency in convening another session in between.

Meanwhile in a related development, former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Oommen Chandy told media that the state government is afraid of the Centre over the Governor’s decision. He said that the state government did not concur to the request of the opposition to convene a meeting at the Chamber Hall of the Assembly to pass a resolution. Opposition UDF members however convened a special meeting against the farm laws.

Chandy called on the state government to pass an ordinance against the farm laws instead of a resolution when the special session of the Assembly is called on January 8.

BJP state chief K. Surendran came out in support of the Governor in disallowing the special session of the Assembly and said that it was a waste of time and resources.

  ARIF MUHAMMAD KHAN