Thiruvananthapuram: Congress general secretary K C Venugopal on Wednesday alleged that the recent appointments of vice chancellors to two state-run technical universities point to a covert understanding between the Kerala Chief Minister and the Governor, casting doubt on their publicly stated differences.

Venugopal was reacting to the announcement that Dr Ciza Thomas has been appointed Vice Chancellor of APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University, while Dr Saji Gopinathan will assume charge as Vice Chancellor of the Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology.

The Congress leader said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had earlier opposed the appointment of Dr Ciza Thomas as VC of Kerala University, a stand that was evident from the alleged state-backed SFI protests against her. Likewise, Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, in his role as Chancellor, had earlier provided detailed objections to the appointment of Dr Saji Gopinathan as VC of the technical university.

“Now, suddenly, all those reasons and objections of the Governor and the CM have gone up in smoke. Why is that? Was there a direction from the top? It is clear from all this that there is an 'antardhara' (tacit understanding) between them. They have compromised in order to fool the people. This is very serious,” Venugopal, who is also the Congress MP from Alappuzha, alleged.

He pointed out that the decision was announced just days before the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the matter on December 19 to decide the appointments of the two vice chancellors. Last week, the apex court had observed that repeated attempts to resolve the deadlock had failed.

Noting the continuing stalemate, the Supreme Court had constituted a committee headed by retired Supreme Court judge Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia to recommend one candidate each for the two VC posts. The bench observed that despite multiple exchanges of letters and meetings between the state government and the Chancellor, no agreement had been reached.

Calling the situation “unfortunate,” the court had decided to intervene to ensure the appointments were finalised. The dispute stemmed from differences over the chief minister’s role in the selection process and objections raised by the Governor to certain names proposed by the state government.

The disagreement eventually led to legal proceedings in the Kerala High Court and later the Supreme Court, with both sides accusing each other of delaying the appointments. The apex court had earlier cautioned that it would step in if the Chief Minister and the Governor failed to resolve the issue amicably.