As the party only chose freshers, all the ministers of CPI(M) that were part of the previous government have been dropped from the state cabinet.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) state committee on Tuesday appointed Pinarayi Vijayan as the CPI (M) parliamentary party leader and Kerala's Chief Minister.
True to his style of being the last word in the CPI-M and also in the government, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan delivered a beamer when he, much to the surprise and dismay of many, dropped the acclaimed Health Minister KK Shailaja from his new cabinet.
As the party only chose freshers, all the ministers of CPI(M) that were part of the previous government have been dropped from the state cabinet.
The 21-member cabinet includes 12 from the CPI-M, four from the CPI, one each from the Kerala Congress (M), NCP and Janata Dal(S) and one each from two allies which will be shared between the four allies, each having one legislator.
The party state committee, chaired by senior leader Elamaram Kareem, decided to entrust Shailaja with the position of party whip, a CPI(M) statement said.
It has come as a shock to many in the party and outside and all that Shailaja said was, she is a disciplined party worker and will abide by the party's decision.
"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 AN Shamseer, CPI(M) leader on the new Kerala Cabinet that will be sworn in on May 20.
On being asked about KK Shailaja being dropped from the Cabinet AN Shamseer, CPI(M) leader said, "It is our party's collective decision taken by a collective leadership."
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.
Interestingly, Riyas, the All India President of the DYFI (the youth wing of the CPI-M), is the son-in-law of Chief Minister Vijayan. He married Vijayan's daughter Veena Vijayan last year. It was the second marriage of both.
The party has selected MB Rajesh as Speaker 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.
Left Democratic Front convenor A. Vijayaraghavan told the media that a 21-member cabinet will be sworn in on Thursday and including Vijayan, there will be 12 cabinet ministers from the CPI-M.
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.
(With agency inputs)
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