Thiruvananthapuram: Excluding Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, the new cabinet in Kerala comes with freshers.
The popular face behind Kerala's Covid fight, the former health minister KK Shailaja has been left out. CPM state committee decided not to give concessions to anyone except Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in this regard.
It was Kodiyeri Balakrishnan who put forward the decision to the state committee. Earlier, it was speculated that KK Shailaja would be positioned as a minister in the probable list.
However, the LDF's consecutive government consists of CPM state secretary members including K Radhakrishnan, MV Govindan, P Rajeev and KN Balagopal. State committee members Saji Cherian, VN Vasavan, V Sivankutty and Mohammad Riyaz are also in the minister seats. The women in the cabinet are Aranmula MLA Veena George and Irinjalakuda MLA R Bindu, who is the wife of CPM state secretary A Vijayaraghavan.
The state committee also decided to include Tanur MLA V Abdurahman in the cabinet. The 15th cabinet will instate Thrithala MLA MB Rajesh as speaker. The CPM has copied the same strategy to bring generational change in the cabinet formation as in the candidate selection process. State secretariat members MM Mani and TP Ramakrishnan have also stepped down from the ministry like KK Shailaja.
The CPI list for the cabinet is also completed. New faces such as P Prasad, K. Rajan, Chinchurani and GR Anil will be part of the cabinet from CPI. Chittayam Gopakumar has been appointed as the Deputy Speaker. The decision was taken by the CPI state executive.
