Even as the ruling DMK is expected to play it safe, its alliance partners have announced a boycott of ‘At Home’ reception hosted by Governor R N Ravi on Independence Day at the Raj Bhavan here.

It is no secret that the governor and the DMK government of MK Stalin are at loggerheads with each other and there is no love lost between the two. Despite Ravi’s tenure coming to an end on July 31, there is no official word till date on his extension or replacement.

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While the DMK is keeping silent on its participation, it is expected that the chief minister and a few of his cabinet colleagues would ensure their presence at the reception hosted by the governor as was the case last year. While all the allies of the DMK had boycotted it last time, Stalin attended it along with a handful of ministers.

This year too, Congress, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) of Thol Thirumavalavan, MP, CPI(M) and CPI, MDMK of Vaiko, MP, IUML, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi of MH Jawahirullah and Tamilaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK) of P Velmurugan have all announced a boycott of the event.

“The Congress is boycotting the ‘At Home’ hosted by the Governor to register the opposition of the people of Tamil Nadu against his continuation in office. His term had ended on July 31 and the people want a replacement and not an extension to him. Since taking over the reins of the Raj Bhavan, he has been remaining a stumbling block to cripple the functioning of the popularly elected DMK government in the state. He is functioning as a tool of the BJP government at the Centre,” TNCC president K Selvaperumthagai said in a statement.

CPI (M) state secretary K Balakrishnan and his CPI counterpart R Mutharasan, in separate statements, have denounced the governor functioning as an ‘agent of the BJP’.

Ever since he occupied the Raj Bhavan, the governor proved a thorn in the flesh for the elected government in the state by sitting over many Bills passed by the State Assembly. Apart from the Bill seeking exemption for the state from NEET, they included those which replace the Governor with the chief minister as chancellor of state-run universities and divesting of the power to appoint Vice-Chancellors.

The Supreme Court, on a plea from the Tamil Nadu government against the Raj Bhavan delaying assent inordinately, had come down heavily on the governor. Ravi, who initially refused to administer the oath to K Ponmudy as a minister after the Supreme Court had stayed his sentence and conviction in a wealth case, had to take a U-turn on a direction from the apex court.

He had also earned the wrath of the Dravidian parties for debunking the Dravidian ideology as a colonial offshoot and terming Dravidian icons like rationalist social reformer ‘Periyar’ EV Ramasamy as collaborators with the British. His disparaging remarks on Robert Caldwell, whose pioneering research revealed that Tamil and Dravidian languages were different from Sanskrit, and GU Pope, who translated ‘Thirukkural’ into English, has invited all round condemnation. The DMK and its allies have accused Ravi of carrying out RSS propaganda from the Raj Bhavan.