Kerala's popular health minister K K Shailaja has been denied a second term in Pinarayi Vijayan's new ministry in Kerala, while Vijayan's son-in-law and DYFI national president Mohammed Riyas, and CPI(M) acting state secretary A Vijayaraghavan's wife R Bindu are among the all new CPI(M) faces in the cabinet to be sworn in on Thursday.
Except for Vijayan, no other CPI(M) members in the outgoing cabinet were included in the new cabinet.
Party leaders maintained that the party wanted to bring in new faces and youngsters to the forefront. But a section in the party was learnt to have strongly demanded a second term for Shailaja considering the international attention she grabbed with the fight against Covid-19 and nipah. Some pre-poll surveys even projected her as a potential Chief Minister candidate.
But it was learnt that the party had to go by the suggestion of Vijayan to have all new faces. With the thumping victory and a historic second consecutive term, Vijayan had emerged as undisputed leader of CPI(M) and hence the voices of dissent may not hold much ground, sources close to the party leadership said.
Shailaja, who has been made the party whip, reacted that she would be happy at any decision of the party and the fight against Covid and nipah were joint efforts only.
Journalist-turned-politician and second time MLA Veena George would be also included in the cabinet. Former MP M B Rajesh would be the new Speaker.
Vijayan's son-in-law Riyaz Mohammed is a first time legislator and there were concerns with in the party that his induction into the cabinet may trigger allegations of favouratism by Vijayan. R Bindu is also a first time legislator.
V Sivankutty, who defeated BJP in its lone sitting seat in Kerala, Nemom in Thiruvananthapuram, also got a berth in the cabinet. M V Govindan, K Radhakrishnan, K N Balagopal, P Rajeev, V N Vasavan, Saji Cheriyan and V Abdul Rahman are the other CPI(M) members to join the cabinet. The decisions were taken at CPI(M) state committee meeting.
CPI, which is the second largest party in the Left Democratic Front, also decided to have all new faces in its cabinet seats, including a women. Chinju Rani is the woman to enter the cabinet from CPI, which is also a remarkable decision as it is for the first time after the split in the Community party in Kerala that a woman leader from CPI is being made minister. The women representation in the new cabinet would be four, while it was two in the outgoing cabinet.
K Rajan, P Prasad and G R Anil are the other CPI members to join Pinarayi Vijayan's second cabinet.