Left finalises list of mins, 12 new faces in Cabinet

CPI(M) and CPI, two major parties in the Left Democratic Front (LDF), which was voted to power in the May 16 Assembly polls in Kerala, on Monday finalised its list of ministers, 12 of them being new faces.

Of the total 19 ministers in the state cabinet, CPI(M) will have 12, including Chief Minister, CPI four, Janata Dal (S), NCP and Cong(S) one each.

There are eight new faces, including two women, in the CPI(M) list. Dr Thomas Issac, A K Balan and G Sudhakaran, in the list, were members of the 2006-11 cabinet headed by V S Achuthanandan.

The new faces are E P Jayarajan, K K Shailaja, T P Ramakrishnan, Kadakampally Surendran, A C Moitheen, J Mercykutty Amma, Prof C Raveendranath and Dr K T Jaleel. P Sreeramakrishnan will be the new Speaker.

The CPI(M) State committee met here today and took a final decision on the names of the 11 ministers and Speaker, a statement released by the CPI(M) said. All the CPI ministers are new faces--E Chandrasekharan, V S Sunil Kumar, P Thilothaman and K Raju.

P Sashi will be the Deputy speaker. C Divakaran and Mullakara Ratnakaran, who were ministers in the LDF ministry in 2006-11, failed to get berth this time.

Announcing the CPI list, State secretary Kannam Rajendran told reporters that there was nothing new in fielding new faces now, as in 2006 also the party had followed the same pattern.

Kerala Governor Justice (Retd) P Sathasivam on Monday invited Pinarayi Vijayan, who was elected leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislature party, to form the new government in Kerala. Earlier, Vijayan was unanimously elected Leader of the LDF legislature party. In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, LDF has 91 MLAs, including CPI(M)’s 58, CPI’s 19 and five of CPM-IND.Vijayan’s name was suggested by party secretary Kodieyri Balakrishnan as per the decision of the state committee and it was approved by all the MLAs. After the meeting, Balakrishnan met the governor and staked the claim of LDF to form the next government and handed over letters intimating election of Vijayan as the leader of the LDF Parliamentary party and expression of support from Legislature parties leaders of other constituents of the LDF.