Satheesan announces Kerala Cabinet ahead of swearing-in ceremony

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister-designate V D Satheesan announced his ministerial team on Sunday ahead of the swearing-in ceremony of the new government in the state.

A 21-member cabinet of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) led by V D Satheesan will swear-in on Monday.

Loyalist of the AICC general secretary K C Venugopal, who was one of the contenders to the Chief Minister post, seems to have got an upper hand in the selection of cabinet members.

Senior leader Ramesh Chennithala, who was another contender for the chief minister's post, is also a member of the cabinet. He may also be given the key Home portfolio.

A majority of the cabinet, including the Chief Minister, are first-time cabinet members. The two women in the cabinet, Bindu Krishna and K A Thulasi of the Congress, along with many others, are also first-time MLAs.

MLA K A Thulasi is the wife of Congress MP V K Sreekandan.  

Among the five seats given to the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) one seat will be shared by two MLAs on a rotational basis of two and a half years. There could also be a similar seat-sharing arrangement among other parties with one MLA each.

Satheesan said that no leader exerted pressure during the cabinet formation process and that there was no group-based allocation of seats. He added that several deserving candidates could not be included in the cabinet due to the need to maintain social and regional balance. He also noted that discussions on the distribution of portfolios are in the final stage.

It is learnt that the Chief Minister will hold the Finance portfolio.

Concerns have also emerged over the lack of regional and community representation in the cabinet. The Latin Catholic Church has already publicly expressed its dissatisfaction over its absence in the cabinet.

Top leaders to attend swearing-in

Satheesan said that it was after six decades that the entire Cabinet of Congress-led government is swearing-in together.

AICC top leader Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister D K Sivakumar, Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy and Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu would be attending the swearing-in ceremony.

Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay and many other prominent leaders would also come down to Kerala in the coming days, he said.

Popular decisions likely in first cabinet

All eyes are on the first Cabinet meeting to be held on Monday.

A host of popular measures like free bus ride for women in state transport corporation buses and increasing the honorarium of ASHA workers are expected in the maiden cabinet.

As part of the austerity measures, it was already decided not to unnecessarily buy new vehicles and to do only minimum maintenance work of official residences of the Chief Minister and ministers.

The acute financial crunches of the government is a key challenge before the new government. A large number of government employees are retiring from service this month. This will cause huge fiscal burden to the government.

Cabinet members

Congress:

V D Satheesan - Chief Minister

Ramesh Chennithala 

Sunny Joseph (Kerala PCC president)

K Muraleedharan

A P Anilkumar 

P C Vishnunath

Roji M John

Bindu Krishna

M Liju

T Siddique

K A Thulasi 

O J Janeesh

IUML:

P K Kunhalikutty

N Samsudheen

K M Shaji 

P K Basheer

V E Abdul Gafoor- Parakkal Abdullah to enter cabinet after 2.5 years and will replace any of the IUML MLAs 

Other parties:

Mons Joseph (Kerala Congress-Joseph)

Shibu Baby John (RSP)

Anoop Jacob (Kerala Congress - Jacob)

C P John (CMP)

Speaker:  Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan (Congress) 

Deputy speaker: Shanimol Osman (Congress)