Pinarayi Vijayan was sworn in as the 13th Chief Minister of Kerala in a colorful and unique function held at Thiruvananthapuram’s Central Stadium on Thursday. The oath of office and secrecy was administered by Arif Mohammed Khan, Governor of Kerala to the Chief Minister designate and 21 members of his Cabinet as per strict Covid-19 guidelines and protocol.
The swearing in ceremony was attended among others by the family members of the designated ministers, senior bureaucrats and leaders of the constituent parties in the Left Democratic Front. Sitaram Yechury, the CPI(M) general secretary had flown into Thiruvananthapuram to attend the oath taking ceremony.
Vijayan was the first minister to be sworn in and Veena George the last person to be administered the oath of office. Nobody from the principal opposition party Congress and the BJP were present during the ceremony.
For the first time in the history of Kerala, the swearing in ceremony of Vijayan was preceded by a musical show portraying the growth of the CPI(M) in the State starting from the 1957 E M S Namboodirippadu-led United Front Government to the impressive victory gained by the party in the 2021 election that returned the ruling front to power, the first such win in the last fiur decades.
Vijayan came to the venue of the ceremony accompanied by wife Kamala, grandson (son of Veena through her first marriage), Veena and new son-in-law Mohammed Riyaz. Riyaz was also sworn in as a minister in the cabinet, making the Kerala cabinet a unique one which has the father-in-las as chief minister and son-in-law holding important portfolios (PWD and Tourism).
Earlier in the day Vijayan and the minister designates offered floral tributes at Punnapra-Vayalar Memorial in Alappuzhaa , the resting place of many party workers who were killed in police firing in the riots staged by the united Communist Party of India in October 1946. The Communists claim the riots of 1946 a part of the Indian freedom struggle.
In a significant development, Yechury, while speaking to reporters at Thiruvananthapuram, set to rest all controversies associated with the non-exclusion of K K Shylaja, the health minister in the outgoing government in the new council of ministers. The CPI(M) general secretary said that the decision to bring in new faces in the government in Kerala was taken in the long term interest of the party and for the State.
When he was asked about the reason behind the exclusion of Shylaja, he said the question of who will contest the election and who of the elected MLAs become ministers are matters within the domain of the respective State committees in every State. He pointed out that 26 CPI(M) MLAs of the previous House were denied tickets for the 2021 assembly election. “These MLAs included many senior ministers.
I think that decision was in the long term interest of not only the CPI(M) but for Kerala itself,” he said.