All is not well at Aryabhatta Knowledge University, the varsity to which all technical institutions of the state are affiliated.

Sources said the state government and the office of the governor are not on the same page when it comes to running the university, which was set up in 2008. The governor is the ex officio chancellor of all universities of the state.

The divergence of the views between the government and Raj Bhavan came to the fore when acting vice-chancellor of the university, U.K. Mishra, resigned from his post in the last week of March this year.

Mishra is considered to be close to chief minister Nitish Kumar and had been given the charge of the acting VC after the regular VC, S.U. Guha, retired from service in March 2014.

According to university sources, Mishra resigned after all his financial powers and those relating to appointment of officials were seized by Raj Bhavan.

Prior to his resignation, Mishra, in the capacity of acting VC, had come out with advertisements for appointment of different officials, including registrar and finance officer, in December 2014 and January 2015.

Sources said Raj Bhavan took strong exception to the advertisements as they were issued by an acting VC.

A senior officer at Raj Bhavan, who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity, said: "As Mishra was an ad-hoc arrangement, the chancellor decided to cancel all such advertisements."

The chancellor's office issued a letter on March 13 this year, directing Aryabhatta Knowledge University to stop the appointment process. The Raj Bhavan officer said: "When the chancellor came to know that the process of appointment of officials was on in AKU, he directed the university not to take any policy decisions."

After the Raj Bhavan directive, at a meeting held in March, the executive committee of the university too endorsed that the acting VC could not take any decision regarding appointments.

Sources said that Mishra, who was working as the university engineer at Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University prior to his appointment as acting VC of Aryabhatta Knowledge University, was "upset" after all his powers were seized. An officer at Aryabhatta university, who also spoke under cover of anonymity, said: "U.K. Mishra was not enjoying his work after Raj Bhavan curtailed his powers." Finally, in the last week of March, Mishra tendered his resignation as acting VC.

On March 30, the chancellor, Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, authorised Dr A.K. Agrawal, professor-cum-head of the neurosurgery (or neurological surgery) department at Patna Medical College and Hospital, to discharge the duty of acting VC of Aryabhatta Knowledge University till further orders.

Sources said the government was not consulted by Raj Bhavan while giving charge to Agrawal. The government, however, chose to remain silent given the fact that rules don't prescribe for such consultation for appointment of an in-charge VC. The government, the sources added, wanted to keep the governor's office in good humour ahead of the consultation process that would commence when appointment of a regular VC takes place.

According to education department sources, this being an election year, the government doesn't want to engage in any confutation with Raj Bhavan on the issue like it had in 2011 during the tenure of Devanand Konwar as Governor.

When contacted, Mishra refused to say why he resigned from his post. "I don't have any problem with anyone, but there are some people who had problem with my style of functioning," was all that Mishra was willing to say.

The process of appointment of a full-term VC of the university is on. Director (higher education) S.M. Karim said: "AKU will soon get a new VC after consultations between Raj Bhavan and the state government." Then Governor D.Y. Patil had in 2013 constituted a search committee for the appointment of regular VC at Aryabhatta Knowledge University.

The search committee consists of former Mumbai University VC Vijay V. Khole, Nalanda Open University (NOU) VC Rash Bihari Prasad Singh and former UP Technical University VC Durg Singh Chauhan. Sources said the search committee has completed the scrutiny of applications of potential candidates, but the interviews are yet to begin.