Vijayan responds to Stalin, agrees to move together against ‘erring Guv’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written to his Tamil Nadu counterpart M.K. Stalin in response to his letter seeking cooperation to move together, against the way the Governors are acting by holding back Bills which require his/her clearance.

"As you have rightly stated, presently elected governments in many states are facing this issue. In Kerala too, certain bills passed by the State Assembly after due deliberation have been kept pending by the Governor for unduly long time, some for more than a year," said Vijayan.

"As defenders of the federal spirit of our Constitution, we have to cooperate in every effort to prevent the curtailing of the functioning of elected state governments and we are ready to extend our whole hearted cooperation to you and will consider your proposal," added Vijayan.

Stalin in his letter on April 11 had urged Vijayan to see that the Kerala Assembly pass a similar resolution which the Tamil Nadu assembly had passed on April 10, urging the Union government and the President to 'fix a time frame' for the Governors to give assent to bills that were passed by the state assembly.

The special resolution which needs 3/4th of the votes to be moved in the House was allowed by the Speaker with 144 of the 146 members in the House voting for it.

The AIADMK walked out of the House while BJP MLAs, C. Saraswathi and M.R. Gandhi voted against the resolution.

Stalin while moving the resolution lashed out against the Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi and said that the Governor was making it a habit to speak against the state government whenever the Prime Minister was in the state or when he (Stalin) was in New Delhi.