Kerala Chief Secretary Passes On Role to His Wife in Historic Ceremony, Shashi Tharoor Shares Video

Kerala’s outgoing Chief Secretary, Dr V Venu, officially handed over his position to his wife, Sarada Murlidharan, in a ceremony at the Thiruvananthapuram Secretariat. This transition marks one of the rare instances where a Chief Secretary has passed on their role to a spouse. The event, which highlights both the couple’s distinguished careers as IAS officers, garnered significant attention, including a notable endorsement from Congress MP for Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor. He even shared a video of the ceremony and showered praise on the professional legacy of the Venu-Murlidharan duo.

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“For the first time in India (at least as far as anyone can remember!), Kerala’s outgoing ChiefSecretary, Dr V, Venu, handed over the CS’s post to his wife, Sarada Murlidharan, at a formal handover ceremony at the secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram,” wrote Tharoor on X (formerly known as Twitter).

He explained, “Both are IAS officers of the 1990 batch but Venu is several months older than his wife, who is next in seniority in the service.”

The video shows Dr Venu, the outgoing Chief Secretary of Kerala, rising from his seat and presenting a bouquet to his wife, Sarada Murlidharan, who has taken on the mantle as the new Chief Secretary. As the couple exchanged the bouquet, a round of applause erupted from the officials present there, marking the historic transition.

Watch the video here:

The video, since being shared on September 1 by Tharoor, has drawn a flurry of reactions from social media users. An individual wrote, “Indeed a rare moment. Have seen, met & known many distinguished IAS couples, but husband handing over to wife the baton of Chief Secretary’s post is a rare coincidence. Wishing the outgoing & incoming CS all the best.”

“How profound. Beautiful,” expressed another.

A third commented, “Both have contributed immensely to the development of Kerla.”

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“Nagaland also has that distinction when on Feb 1, 2014, Shri Alemtemshi Jamir handed over the charge of Chief Secretary, Nagaland to his wife Smti Banuo Z Jamir. Both were IAS officers of 1977 batch. Congratulations to the outgoing and incoming CS of Kerala,” added a fourth.

A fifth shared, “And much before that in Karnataka in 2000. BKBhattacharaya retired as CS and his wife Teresa Bhattacharya succeeded him. He retired as Chief Secretary in 2000, after which he was succeeded by his wife Teresa Bhattacharya who became the first woman Chief Secretary of Karnataka.”

“Congrats to her but this seems to be some sort of a trend. When I first came to #Bangalore during the early 2000s, the Chief Secretary was Mrs Teresa Bhattacharya, the first female Chief Secretary of Karnataka, who had succeeded her husband, the late Mr BK Bhattacharya,” joined a sixth.