The Opposition Congress-led United Democratic Front is a divided house in the tussle between the Kerala government and the governor.

Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, who has had frequent run-ins with the Left government, had ordered nine vice-chancellors to resign by 11.30am on Monday before making a turnaround and claiming he did not ask them to quit and had instead offered them an honourable exit.

While a section of the Congress has openly backed Khan, AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal and Lok Sabha member K. Muraleedharan are among those who have slammed the governor for “carrying out the Union government’s brief to interfere with and saffronise state universities”.

Kerala Congress president K. Sudhakaran supported Khan and said: “I don’t feel the governor is pushing the saffron agenda…. Our party and alliance are saying in one voice that the governor’s decision is correct and we stand with that.”

But his party colleague in the Lok Sabha, Muraleedharan, said: “The Centre is using governors to push the saffron agenda.”

“Is this governor a maharaja to issue orders like this? I don’t accept this governor’s decision,” Muraleedharan told reporters on Tuesday. “On what grounds did he ask for their (VCs’) resignations when it was he who had appointed some of them? Why did he appoint them in the first place?”

Told about his own party colleagues like leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan and Sudhakaran backing the governor, Muraleedharan quipped: “You should ask them.”

He, however, urged the Left government and the governor to sort out their differences and work for the development of the state and its universities.

Kerala High Court, hearing eight of the VCs on Monday, allowed them to continue in their posts for now but left the final decision to the governor. Khan had alleged procedural irregularities in the VCs’ selection.

However, between the time the VCs had petitioned the high court in the morning and the judge held the afternoon hearing, the governor had replaced Sunday’s diktat with showcause notices to the VCs, setting them a November 3 deadline.

Venugopal echoed Muraleedharan. “The governor’s decision is in line with the Union government’s efforts to interfere with universities by violating all democratic and constitutional norms,” Venugopal stated in a Facebook post.

Lok Sabha member Rajmohan Unnithan of the Congress said: “The governor is losing trust by behaving like an RSS man.”

Both Venugopal and Unnithan also slammed the LDF government for interfering with appointments in state universities.

Satheesan had backed the governor’s move citing a recent Supreme Court order quashing the appointment of M.S. Rajashree as VC of A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technological University, Thiruvananthapuram, for not following UGC norms.

The Supreme Court had annulled Rajashree’s appointment on the ground that it flouted UGC norms since only one candidate was considered for the post.

“I welcome the governor’s decision to correct his mistakes (in appointing the VCs by flouting norms),” Satheesan had said.

Similar divergence of views was seen in Congress ally IUML as well. While IUML state general secretary P.M.A. Salam welcomed the governor’s stand, his national general secretary P.K. Kunhalikutty opposed it.

“We don’t endorse every action of the governor. We never support any move against the principles of the Constitution,” Kunhalikutty told reporters in Kasaragod on Tuesday.

But he expressed reservations at the manner in which the LDF government was making appointments in universities. “We have strong reservations about the LDF government’s decisions regarding universities and we have already voiced our protest,” he added.

The CPM and its youth and students’ wings on Tuesday continued their protests against the governor. But party leaders were non-committal on whether they would approach the President to recall the governor or want the state government to pass a legislation removing him as the chancellor of state universities.

More notices

Governor Khan on Tuesday issued showcause notices to two more vice-chancellors citing the Supreme Court verdict that quashed the appointment of Rajashree. He served notices to P.M. Mubarak Pasha, VC of Sreenarayana Guru Open University, and Saji Gopinath, VC of Kerala University of Digital Sciences, Innovation and Technology.

They have time till 5pm on November 4 to reply to the notices.