CHENNAI: Governor RN Ravi accompanied by his wife Laxmi Ravi on Thursday hosted an At Home reception to mark the Independence celebrations.
Chief Minister MK Stalin, Assembly Speaker M Appavu, ministers, senior IAS officers, MPs, MLAs and leaders of political parties attended. The DMK and its allies boycotted the event citing the governor’s activities while principal opposition party AIADMK was represented by former ministers D Jayakumar and P Benjamin.
PMK leader GK Mani, BJP state president K Annamalai, DMDK general secretary Premalatha Vijayakant, TMC president GK Vasan, and many others attended the reception.
While DMK as a party had boycotted the reception, the government did not boycott. Earlier on Thursday, addressing the media, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said that although there were differences of opinion, the office of Governor is an institution and Chief Minister MK Stalin has respected and honoured the institution. Hence the chief minister and ministers will attend the reception, he said.
CM presented a book ‘Swadeshi Steam’ on freedom fighter VO Chidambaram Pillai and his battle against the British empire to the governor.