Pinarayi Vijayan forms new cabinet, ‘coronavirus slayer’ KK Shailja dropped: 5 points
Vijayan, aiming to rule the state for the next five years, has revamped his cabinet with 11 new faces and only inducted freshers. The state health minister in the outgoing assembly, KK Shailaja, who played a leading role in the fight against Covid-19 disease outbreak has not found a place in the new cabinet.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) state committee on Tuesday elected its chief Pinarayi Vijayan as parliamentary party leader and the state chief minister, after scripting history by becoming the only political leader to enter a successful second stint in Kerala.
Vijayan, aiming to rule the state for the next five years, has revamped his cabinet with 11 new faces and only inducted freshers. The state health minister in the outgoing assembly, KK Shailaja, who played a leading role in the fight against Covid-19 disease outbreak has not found a place in the new cabinet.
Here is all you need to know about Pinarayi Vijayan's new cabinet:
- The ministers from CPI(M) in the new Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet include MV Govindan, K Radhakrishnan, KN Balagopal, P Rajeev, VN Vasavan, Saji Cherian, V Sivankutty, Mohammad Riyas, Dr R Bindu, Veena George and V Abdul Rahman. Riyas is the son-in-law of the chief minister.
- Shailaja has not been kept aside by the Left Democratic Front and has been chosen as the Party's whip. On being asked about KK Shailaja being dropped from the cabinet, CPI(M) leader AN Shamseer said, "It is a collective decision taken by the party leadership."
- The party has selected MB Rajesh as the speaker of the House candidate and TP Ramakrishnan has been appointed as the parliamentary party secretary.
- Polit Bureau members S Ramachandran Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and MA Baby were present in the meeting presided over by Elamaram Kareem.
- "Only the chief minister will be there (from the previous Kerala cabinet), rest of the 11 ministers are new. It is a blend of youngsters and the old," said Shamseer on the new cabinet that will be sworn in on May 20.
Vijayan had scripted history in the April 6 Assembly polls by leading the Left front to a consecutive term, breaking the over four-decade-old trend in the state of the people choosing between Communists and Congress-led governments alternately.
The Communist Party of India (M)-led LDF retained power in Kerala by winning 99 seats against 41 seats of Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the assembly polls. BJP could not win any seat.
