A 19-member lDF Cabinet headed by CPI(M) Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan was sworn-in on Wednesday evening in Kerala ending the allegedly corruption-ridden five-year-rule of the Congress-led UDF Government headed by Oommen Chandy and giving Keralites new hopes of clean and transparent governance.
Pinarayi Vijayan, 72, was sworn-in as Kerala’s 22nd Chief Minister by Governor P Sathasivam at a grand ceremony held at the Central Stadium in the capital, Thiruvananthapuram, at 4.00 pm Wednesday in the presence top political leaders, former Ministers, cultural personalities, other dignitaries and thousands of activists of left parties.
In the 19-member Cabinet, the CPI(M) has 12 members including Pinarayi while the CPI has four and Janata Dal(S), NCP and Congress(S) one each. All of them took oath in Malayalam. Three of the Ministers, Mathew Thomas of the JD(S), Kadannappally Ramachandran of Congress(S) and left Independent KT Jaleel took oath in the name of God.
“The people are viewing the lDF Government with great expectations. Our effort will be to live up to those expectations,” said Pinarayi Vijayan after his meeting with the Governor at the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday morning at which he had handed over the list of the left’s Cabinet members to Sathasivam.
The lDF came to power winning a landslide victory in the Assembly election held on May 16 in which it bagged 91 seats in the 140-member House. The CPI(M), head of the coalition, alone bagged 63 seats. The UDF’s tally was reduced to just 47 seats and front leader Congress was confined to a mere 22 seats.
Pinarayi, who had been State CPI(M) secretary for 17 years, was elected to the Assembly from his home constituency Dharmadom in Kannur district by a margin of 36,905 votes. A fifth time MlA, he was Power Minister in the 1996-2011 lDF Government headed by late EK Nayanar. It was during that time the massive SNC lavalin corruption scandal involving him had erupted.
The CPI(M) Ministers who took oath along with Pinarayi were TM Thomas Isaac, EP Jayarajan, AK Balan, KK Shailaja, Kadakampally Surendran, J Mercykutty Amma, G Sudhakaran, AC Moideen, TP Ramakrishnan and C Raveendranath. left Independent MlA KT Jaleel also took oath as Minister.
All except three of the CPI(M) contingent in the Cabinet are new faces. Isaac, Balan and Sudhakaran were Finance, Power and Cooperation Ministers respectively in the 2006-11 lDF government headed by VS Achuthanandan. Women’s organizations applauded the party for making two of its five woman MlAs Ministers.
All the four Ministers of the CPI — VS Sunilkumar, K Raju, E Chandrasekharan and P Thilothaman — and the representative of the NCP in the Cabinet, AK Saseendran, are new faces. Mathew T Thomas of the Janata Dal (S) and Congress (S) State president Kadannappally Ramachandran were ministers in the former Achuthanandan government.
Apart from General Administration, the Chief Minister will look after Home, Vigilance and IT departments while Thomas Isaac, himself an economist, will be handling Finance which he had looked after in the 2006-11 government. Staunch Pinarayi-loyalist Jayarajan will handle the Industries and Sports portfolios while Shailaja will look after Health.
Outgoing chief minister Oommen Chandy, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, nonagenarian Marxist Achuthanandan who was denied the CM’s post by the CPI(M) and former Union minister O Rajagopal, the lone MlA of the BJP, were among the hundreds of dignitaries who attended the swearing-in ceremony.
From the CPI(M), general secretary Sitaram Yechuri, Politbureau member Prakash Karat, State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and others attended the function. Several religious leaders, heads of community organisations, cultural personalities and prominent stars from the movie field were also present at the Central Stadium.
Though Achuthanandan, 93, was denied the CM’s post despite being the chief campaigner of the left in the election, several members of the Pinarayi Cabinet started their special day, Wednesday, by calling on him. CPI(M) Minister G Sudhakaran even prostrated at the feet of Achuthanandan.