Kerala Governor-designate Om Prakash Mathur arrived in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday night, ahead of his swearing-in ceremony at the Lok Bhavan on Friday. Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, Speaker Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and BJP legislator and former Union Minister V. Muraleedharan were among those who received him at the airport.
Source: NewKerala (IANS)
The swearing-in ceremony will be held at the Lok Bhavan auditorium at 12.15 p.m. on Friday. According to ANI, the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court, Justice Soumen Sen, will administer the oath of office to the Governor-designate. Mathur, 74, succeeds Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar as the 29th Governor of Kerala, and Arlekar has been transferred to Tamil Nadu.
Earlier on Thursday, the state government hosted a farewell dinner for the outgoing Governor, and the Chief Minister and his team also saw Arlekar off at the airport. At the farewell, Satheesan said the government had enjoyed a warm relationship with Arlekar, while Arlekar said he had only returned the love and affection he received from the people of Kerala.
Mathur is a veteran organisational leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He served as the 18th Governor of Sikkim from July 2024 until October 2026, represented Rajasthan in the Rajya Sabha for two terms, from 2008 to 2014 and from 2016 to 2022, and served as president of the Rajasthan BJP from 2008 to 2009. He hails from Bedal village in Bali, in Rajasthan's Pali district.