Former Union minister and veteran politician Arif Mohammad Khan was sworn in as the 24th Governor of Kerala in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in Thiruvananthapuram, on Friday.

Kerala High Court Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy administered Khan the oath of office at the Raj Bhawan. He took the oath first in Malayalam. Ministers from the Kerala cabinet and other top officials also attended the event.

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arrived here on Thursday, and was given a guard of honour at the airport.
Despite being in the city, Vijayan failed to greet the new Governor at the airport, but made it up by calling on Khan at his residence later in the day.

68 years old Congress leader Arif Mohammed Khan arrived at Thiruvannatpuram on Thursday, and was given a guard of honour at the airport.

Khan replaced Justice (Retd) Palanisami Sathasivam, former Chief Justice of India, who was appointed as governor of the state in September 2014.

The new Kerala Governor, had earlier quit the Rajiv Gandhi government over the Shah Bano case and has been cited many times by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in triple talaq debates. He showed support to the Centre on its Article 370 move. The former Cabinet Minister hails from Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.

Earlier, on September 1, after being appointed as the new Kerala Governor, Khan said, “It is an opportunity to serve. Fortunate to be born in a country like India which is so vast and rich in diversity. It is a great opportunity for me to know this part of India, which forms boundary of India and is called God’s own country.”

Khan had jumped the fence sever times in his long political career. Starting from former prime minister Charan Singh’s Bharatiya Kranti Dal, Congress, Janata Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party, in 2004, he joined the BJP, but quit three years later.

The BJP in order to woo the Muslim voters in Kerala posted Khan in the state, which has a significant Muslim population.