Thiruvananthapuram, March 22: If popular wisdom is any guide, a prince should be known by his love of ostentatious display, a politician by his keenness to project “austerity”.

But people in Kerala have recently been left scratching their heads over the paradox presented by a tale of two cars.

One is a Rs 7.5-crore Rolls-Royce Phantom that the head of the former royal family of Travancore has declined to accept as a gift from a businessman.

The other is the Audi Q7 that Kerala’s acting governor H.R. Bharadwaj wants to add to his official fleet that already boasts a new Mercedes E-class car bought just six months ago for Rs 40 lakh.

Bharadwaj, the Karnataka governor and a former Union minister, has hardly visited Kerala since January 17 when he took additional charge of the state — after governor M..H. Farook went on medical leave and subsequently passed away in Chennai.

But that hasn’t stopped his office, the Raj Bhavan, from writing to the state government to buy an Audi Q7 for his travels. The purchase, which the state finance department is expected to clear, will cost Rs 80 lakh in taxpayers’ money.

On the other hand, former royal Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma, a known car lover and custodian of what many believe is the world’s largest temple treasure, wouldn’t yield to a Bangalore-based businessman’s pleas to accept the special edition Rolls-Royce Phantom.

Purushottam Reddy, a builder with mining interests in Turkey, wanted to present the luxury car to Marthanda Varma on the occasion of his 90th birthday on March 18.

Reddy is vice-chairman of the Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma Foundation, a charitable trust that has the prince as its nominal head and is chaired by Abu Dhabi-based magnate B.R. Shetty of the New Medical Centre group of companies.

“Reddy, who owns a fleet of luxury cars, requested the king to accept the vehicle, but he politely declined saying he had his own cars. After much pleading, the king agreed to use it just for that day and then returned it to the owner,” said P. Rajesh, a member of the trust.

The Phantom, which is bullet-proof, has its insides rimmed with white gold while the emblem in front is made of platinum. It had been custom-made for a prospective British buyer but Reddy secured it about seven months ago, sources said.

Marthanda Varma has been driving cars since the age of 17 and still retains three of his vintages — a 1955 Mercedes 180D, a 1975 Mercedes 220S and a 1975 model Valiant.

Known for its frugal ways, the royal family recently hit the headlines for safely preserving an estimated Rs 1 lakh crore worth of precious stones and gold jewellery at the Sree Padmanabha Swami temple here.

The temple’s vaults, which lay closed for years, were opened in mid-2011 on the Supreme Court’s directions and revealed the astonishing collection donated by the erstwhile rulers of Travancore state.