Thiruvananthapuram: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.
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 is the son-in-law of the Chief Minister.
Read:|KK Shailaja to be CPI(M) Chief Whip in Kerala
As the party only chose freshers, all the ministers of CPI(M) that were part of the previous government, including former Health Minister KK Shailaja, have been dropped from the state cabinet. Shailaja has been chosen as the Party's whip.
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.