Kerala CM to release KK Shailaja’s autobiography ‘My Life As A Comrade’ on April 28

Shailaja recalls in her memoirs that she was asked several times whether she was disappointed about being dropped from the government

Did KK Shailaja, who as Health Minister earned international praise for steering Kerala’s Covid-19 fight back, wanted a seat in Pinarayi Vijayan’s government when the LDF returned to power in 2021?

What the senior CPI(M) leader thinks about the episode, which has triggered much interest inside and outside Kerala, is part of her memoir 'y Life As A Comrade: The Story of an Extraordinary Politician and the World That Shaped Her, which is going to hit the stands soon.

Shailaja recalls in her memoirs to be launched by Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan in Delhi on Friday that she was asked several times about being dropped from the government. In 2016 when she assumed charge as a Minister, she knew it was a moment that she could not afford to fail.

Read | Congress claims corruption, lack of transparency in AI camera project of Kerala govt

“I wasn’t particularly surprised or concerned about the seat in the cabinet, but it had been my dream to complete the process of renewing the health sector, and I was concerned that perhaps those changes would be left incomplete,” she writes in the memoir published by Juggernaut. She felt that it takes more than one term to finish a task as large as the one they had undertaken.

The memoir, which Shailaja co-authored with Manju Sara Rajan, talks about her growing up as a Communist, her party work, fighting elections, and her term as Minister between 2016 and 2021 when Kerala was hit not just by Covid-19, but Nipah and other health concerns.

The former Health Minister recalls her childhood and youth days, and how her grandmother and mother shaped her life. She also recalls how then Chief Minister AK Antony helped her with a special order to enable her to take voluntary retirement from government service.