Thiruvananthapuram

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) CPI(M) state committee on Tuesday appointed Pinarayi Vijayan as the CPI (M) parliamentary party leader and Kerala's Chief Minister.

The ministers from CPI(M) in the new Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet include MV Govindan, K Radhakrishnan, KN Balagopal, P Rajeev, VN Vasavan, Saji Cherian, V Sivankutty, Mohammad Riyas, Dr. R Bindu, Veena George and V Abdul Rahman. Interestingly, Riyas is the son-in-law of the Chief Minister.

As the party only chose freshers, all the ministers of CPI(M) that were part of the previous government, including former Health Minister KK Shailaja, have been dropped from the state cabinet. Shailaja has been chosen as the Party's whip.

The party has selected MB Rajesh as Speaker candidate and TP Ramakrishnan has been appointed as the Parliamentary Party Secretary. Polit Bureau members S Ramachandran Pillai, Pinarayi Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and MA Baby were present in the meeting presided over by Elamaram Kareem.

"Only the Chief Minister will be there (from the previous Kerala cabinet), rest of the 11 ministers are new. It is a blend of youngsters and the old," said AN Shamseer, CPI(M) leader on the new Kerala Cabinet that will be sworn in on May 20.

On being asked about KK Shailaja being dropped from the Cabinet AN Shamseer, CPI(M) leader said, "It is our party's collective decision taken by a collective leadership."

The Communist Party of India (M)-led LDF retained power in Kerala by winning 99 seats against 41 seats of Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in the Assembly polls. BJP could not win any seat.