Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman holding discussions with the Kerala duo - Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar - at the Kerala House in Delhi on March 12 was widely seen as a whistle-worthy comeback of the federal spirit from what looked like a hopeless descend into a complete rupture of the Centre-State bond.

The most applauded feature was the decision of the Governor to cast aside protocol and sit with the Chief Minister, and together present Kerala's case to the union finance minister. Equally reassuring was Sitharaman's decision to meet the CM at his official residence in Delhi, a gesture no union finance minister has ever extended to any Kerala CM.

However, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala has suspicions. "Even before, union ministers and senior officials had met Kerala chief ministers. But all of that was official," Chennithala said in the Assembly on Monday, March 17, during the Discussion and Voting on Demands for Grants in the 2025-26 Budget.

"This was but an unofficial meeting according to a PRD release," Chennithala said, holding a copy of the press release issued by the Public Relations Department (PRD) about the meeting the Union finance minister held with the CM, the Governor and Kerala's special envoy to Delhi, K V Thomas. "We have the right to know what was the unofficial business that transpired between the CM and the union finance minister, and that too in the presence of the Governor," he said.

Though he described Arlekar as a "good man", Chennithala said that the Governor believed in a particular brand of politics. "Most of the governors in India have always upheld this politics," he said, and in a tone that had earlier irritated Pinarayi, asked: "Mr Chief Minister, what did you discuss with the union finance minister? There is nothing in this PRD release to enlighten me."

He repeated the question, but this time, his words were more loaded; he identified Sitharaman as more than just the finance minister. "What was the unofficial discussion that you held with the union finance and corporate affairs minister," he said, vaguely hinting that the Centre and the state were coming together to benefit some big corporate house or houses.

Chennithala said there was nothing wrong in sensing some political agenda in the move of the number three of the BJP government visiting the Kerala CM at his official residence, and that too unofficially. "Can anyone fault us if we say that the Governor has offered himself as the bridge in this deal," he said.

The Chief Minister dismissed the idea of the Governor as the bridge. He spoke of strange coincidences. Initially when he was invited to the dinner for Kerala MPs in Delhi, Pinarayi said he had told the Governor that he would not be able to make it. "I said this because the event was in Delhi, and I had no idea whether I could fly over there," Pinarayi said.

As it turned out both found themselves in the same night flight to Delhi, and that too in adjacent seats, on March 9. Pinarayi had a politburo meeting to attend the next day (March 10), and the Governor, to the CM's surprise, was hosting the MPs on the day of the PB meeting.

"We were seated side by side. He told me that the dinner was tomorrow and asked me whether I would come. I told him that this was a coincidence as I would also be there in Delhi tomorrow. I said I will come," the CM said.

At the dinner for Kerala MPs, the CM casually told the Governor that the finance minister was coming for breakfast the next day (March 12). He told the Governor that it would be nice if he could also be there. The Governor accepted. "It would be clear by now that I was not walking on the bridge that the Governor laid for me," the CM said.

Pinarayi also made light of Chennithala's suggestion that there was some impropriety in a CPM leader having "unofficial" business with BJP leaders. "Strongly held political beliefs would not melt away just because one meets people from the other end of the political spectrum," Pinarayi said.

There was irony here. In February 2024, when UDF MP N K Premachandran accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's invitation for tea at the Parliament canteen, the CPM had branded him a 'Sanghi' wolf on the verge of throwing away his sheep's clothing.

"RSP's N K Premachandran is part of the UDF alliance. He is one among the eight people whom PM Modi invited for lunch. What does it mean? What is the understanding between BJP and UDF," the then LDF convenor E P Jayarajan had asked. It is another matter that it was later revealed that Jayarajan himself had met BJP leader Prakash Javadekar unofficially at his son's residence.

In the Assembly, the CM said his meeting with Sitharaman was "just a breakfast meeting". Nonetheless, the CM said that the union finance minister had raised "certain grave issues" related to Kerala. He did not elaborate. "I did not want to transform that breakfast meeting into a show of politics by presenting her with a memorandum or the like," the CM said.