Thiruvananthapuram: Former Union minister Arif Mohammed Khan was sworn in as the Kerala governor on Friday at the Raj Bhavan. Kerela high court Chief Justice Hrishikesh Roy administered the oath of office to Khan, who was appointed as the 22nd governor of the state on September 1.

Chief secretary Tom Jose invited Khan to take oath as part of the ceremonial gesture after reading out the order of the president of India appointing the latter as the governor of the state. Khan took oath in Malayalam, despite some difficulty, in the name of God.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, leader of the opposition Ramesh Chennithala, state ministers including E.P. Jayarajan, T.M. Thomas Isaac, A.K. Balan, Kadakampally Surendran, Ramachandran Kadannappally and K.T. Jaleel, speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan and the lone BJP legislator O. Rajagopal also attended the function.

Reshma Arif, Khan's wife, also attended the event held at the Raj Bhavan auditorium. While all the guests handed over a bouquet of flowers to the governor, Jaleel was seen gifting two books to Khan.

Khan, 68, succeeds Justice (retired) P. Sathasivam, who left for Chennai after being the governor for five years since 2014.