Oomen Chandy to meet Modi on June 2

Thiruvananthapuram: While political leaders across the country have been vying with each other to be at Rashtrapathi Bhavan coinciding with Mr Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy skipped it.

He told reporters in Kochi that he would  meet Mr Modi on June 2 and hold talks with him. He  also said Mr Modi had invited him to attend the ceremony, but he had expressed his inability to come due to prior engagements in the state. However, Chief Secretary E. K. Bharat Bhushan told DC that there was no such protocol of a state government official representing the swearing-in ceremony on behalf of the Chief Minister  in his absence.

On Sunday, senior BJP leader O. Rajagopal termed Mr Chandy’s decision as “unfortunate.” Other prominent chief ministers who  stayed back from the function  are Karnataka and Tamil Nadu Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah and J. Jayalalithaa respectively. However, Ms Jayalalithaa boycotted the ceremony in protest against the  presence of  Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapakse.

A government source close to Mr Chandy told DC that there was nothing wrong in Mr Chandy not attending the function.  But he added that a few UDF MPs from Kerala took  part in the ceremony as per their individual judgment.

State protocol officer T. P. Vijayakumar also said there was no practice in the state for the CM to depute an official to take part in the ceremony in his absence.