The standoff between the Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan and the state’s Left Democratic Front government led by the Marxist Pinarayi Vijayan has intensified as the former refused to sign an ordinance issued by the state government to increase the number of constituencies in local self-government.

The government sent the ordinance to the governor for approval more than two weeks ago and the delay is being viewed as an offshoot of already strained relations between the two offices. Officially though, the governor’s office has an alibi in a memorandum by Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala who accused that the ordinance was ill-timed and against the provisions of Census Act 1948 and its rules. The governor had earlier returned the file in this regard following the complaint raised by the opposition leader.

This deadlock comes even as the governor and the government locked horns over the latter’s move to challenge the Citizenship Amendment Act in the Supreme Court. Though several non-BJP states have said they will not allow the CAA’s implementation, Kerala on Tuesday became the first state to challenge it in the Supreme Court. Khan, who was appointed as the state government by the Modi government a few months back,  was particularly irked that he was kept in the dark about the government’s decision to challenge the. “Protocol and courtesy demanded that as the Head of the state, I should be kept informed about the move, leave alone seeking my approval. I came to know about it through the papers”, he told newsmen. Even when the Kerala assembly passed a resolution against the CAA, the governor had voiced his opposition, saying it was unconstitutional. “A state assembly cannot pass a resolution on a matter that’s outside its jurisdiction.

—India Legal Bureau