THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Although the Senate meeting was called yesterday following the Governor's ultimatum to appoint a representative to the search committee to select the Kerala VC, the governor was tricked by failing to meet the quorum. One-fifth (21 members) is required to fill the quorum in the 102-member Senate. Only 13 people, including VC, arrived. The meeting was adjourned after recording their attendance.

PVC Dr PP Ajayakumar, 11 of the 13 dignitaries nominated by the governor and six IAS who are ex-officio members abstained from the meeting. Fearing that he would have to give an explanation to the governor for not attending the meeting, Dr PP Ajayakumar cancelled all of yesterday's meetings and left.

The governor could have suspended or fired the VC, considering it a misdeed for ignoring his instructions to convene the senate. The meeting was called to avoid that. The position of the LDF members is that since the governor did not accept the resolution passed by the Senate on August 20 to cancel the search committee formed by the governor without a representative of the senate, the representative should not be appointed. These members did not attend the meeting. If the meeting is held, the UDF members were to propose former VC of Sanskrit University MC Dileep Kumar as the Senate representative. If the meeting was held, the VC was bound to approve it. The quorum was not met to avoid such a situation.

VC Dr VP Mahadevan Pillai's tenure will end on October 24. MLAs M.Vincent and C.R.Mahesh led a protest in front of the Senate Hall to protest the sabotage of the election of the Senate representative.