The governor is a representative of the BJP-led government at the centre. (File)
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan was removed as the chancellor of the Kerala Kalamandalam deemed university by the state government on Thursday, a day after a sharp escalation in a face-off between the two sides.
The state government announced it was changing the rules of the university to replace Mr Khan with an eminent person from the field of art and culture.
The governor is a representative of the BJP-led government at the centre and is known for his near-daily run-ins with the state's Left Democratic Front (LDF) administration.
The state government and the governor have been increasingly at odds over the functioning of universities, including the appointment of Vice Chancellors.
A day ago, the Kerala government announced it will come out with a special order to replace the governor with eminent academicians as university chiefs, a decision that has been opposed both by the Congress and BJP.
The amended rules of the Kerala Kalamandalam also say that the governance system and management structure of the deemed university shall follow the decisions of the state government.
The new rules define "chancellor" as one "appointed by the sponsoring body" and that "the chancellor shall be an eminent person in the field of art and culture".
The rule regarding the tenure of the chancellor was also amended, with the new one setting a five-year tenure with the possibility of a second term.
Apart from Kerala, the friction between governors and governments in two other non-BJP-ruled southern states had spiked on Wednesday, with Tamil Nadu seeking a recall of RN Ravi and Tamilisai Soundararajan expressing doubts of her phone being tapped in Telangana.