A fresh row has erupted between the Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan and the BRS Government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao over the absence of the former at the inauguration of the new Secretariat building last Sunday.

In its clarification on the issues, the Raj Bhavan on Tuesday said that the governor was not invited to the programme. The clarification came after a BRS minister alleged that she had deliberately skipped the event.

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The relations between the Raj Bhavan and the state government is currently at an all-time low after the latter filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the governor for sitting on as many as ten Bills passed by the state Assembly.

The Raj Bhavan on Tuesday, in the statement, vehemently claimed that no invitation was sent to the governor for the inaugural ceremony of the state-of-the-art integrated Secretariat by the government.

“Raj Bhavan further makes it clear that no invitation whatsoever has been sent to the governor inviting her to the inauguration of the new Secretariat Building and this has been the precise and sole reason for her non attendance at the inauguration of the new Secretariat building,” read the statement.

Telangana’s energy minister G Jagadish Reddy had accused the governor of skipping the inauguration as she was jealous of the state’s rapid development. He had also accused her of obstructing the state’s development.

The statement from Raj Bhavan also “vehemently” denied that an invitation was extended to her and she didn’t attend the event deliberately, calling it a “baseless and false allegation.”

Earlier, the governor was also not invited for the inauguration of the 125 feet tall statue of BR Ambedkar near the Secretariat and Dr Soundararajan had expressed her disappointment saying she felt bad that she was not invited for the function. “If I had got the invitation I would have come and participated in the inauguration of the statue of our honourable Ambedkarji,” she had said.

Although there was no official response from the state government following the statement from Raj Bhavan, BRS supporters and their social media handles chose to remind the governor about her speech on the Republic Day when she had taken a dig at the chief minister saying “New buildings are not for development, nation building is for development.”

It may be pointed out that ever since the relations between the governor and the government soured, Dr Soundararajan has accused the government of denying her protocol even during her visits to the districts.