Chennai | Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar was sworn in as the Governor of Tamil Nadu on Thursday in a simple ceremony held here at the Lok Bhavan.

On his arrival at the Bharathiar Mandapam of Lok Bhavan, Arlekar was accorded a warm welcome by Chief Minister M K Stalin and Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari.

Arlekar, also the present Governor of Kerala, is the 27th Governor of Tamil Nadu.

Chief Secretary N Muruganandam read out the Warrant of Appointment and Justice Dharmadhikari administered the oath of office.

Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker M Appavu, State Ministers, including K N Nehru, EV Velu, PK Sekar Babu and S Regupathy, Union Minister of State L Murugan and top officials were present.

Heads of the Armed Forces establishments in Chennai, senior officers of the Central and State governments, BJP leaders Nainar Nagendran, Tamilisai Soundararajan were among those who present on the occasion. The governor's wife Anagha Arlekar was also present on the dais.

Stalin introduced his council of ministers to the governor. Arlekar was accorded a ceremonial guard of honour by the Tamil Nadu police.

Seventy-one year old Arlekar hails from Goa and during 2003-2007 he was the Goa State President of BJP. An ex-MLA, he had been the Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker from 2012 to 2017. He was also former Minister for Forest and Environment and Panchayati Raj in Goa. Arlekar is ex-governor of Himachal Pradesh and Bihar.

The governor's predecessor RN Ravi, had all along been at loggerheads with the ruling DMK government. On March 12, Ravi was sworn in as the Governor of poll-bound West Bengal.