As V D Sathisan prepares to take oath as Kerala Chief Minister tomorrow, he has handed over the final list of ministers for his proposed government to Governor Rajendra Arlikar.
The Prime Minister-designate announced the names of 20 of his cabinet ministers, including three women, at a press conference held at the Cantonment House in Thiruvananthapuram, news agency ANI reported. These ministers will be sworn in alongside Sathisean on Monday (May 18).
Sathisan said the names were decided after discussions among alliance leaders, taking social and regional representation within the alliance into account. The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government will be sworn in on Monday at the Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram.
Read also | Core Hindutva, OBCs now pivot to BJP in Kerala; He sees hope in the long term after winning three seats in the 140-seat House of Representatives
Complete list of Kerala government ministers who will be sworn in tomorrow
• Ramesh Chennithala (Congress)
• Sunny Joseph (Congress)
• K. Muraleedharan (Congress)
• P C Vishnunadh (Congress)
• A.P. Anilkumar (Congress)
• Roger M. John (Congress)
• Friend (Congress)
• Bindu Krishna (Congress)
• M. Legault (Congress)
• O.J. Janisch (Congress)
• Ka Thulasi (Congress)
• PK Kunhalikutty (IUML)
• BK Bashir (IUML)
• How much tea (IUML)
• N. Shams Al-Din (IUML)
• V. E. Abdul Ghafoor (IUML)
• Mons Joseph (Kerala Congress)
• Shibu Baby John (Revolutionary Socialist Party)
• CP John (Kerala State Committee of CPM)
• Anoop Jacob (Kerala Congress)
Congress gets 11 cabinet seats, IUML five
Chief Minister-designate Sathisean said the Congress got 11 ministerial seats in its cabinet, adding that the decision on allocation of portfolios was taken after discussion with alliance partners.
“After 60 years, the full UDF government will take oath tomorrow at 10 am. Today we have submitted a list of 20 ministers to the governor. 21 ministers will take oath with me,” news agency ANI quoted Sathisan as saying. He added that the process of distributing ministerial portfolios was completed within 24 hours.
“…This is the fastest in the history of Kerala. Because even after the elections, the UDF team remains the UDF team, and the leaders respect each other,” Sathisan added. Besides the Congress, five members of the Indian Union Muslim League will take the constitutional oath, along with two members of the Kerala Congress, and one member each of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Kerala State Committee of the Marxist Communist Party.
“We have to take into account the social and regional balance.”
Although there are 63 elected members of the Legislative Assembly capable of granting ministries, the alliance must also take into account “social and regional balance”, Sathisean said.
“We are not able to include all qualified people in the Council of Ministers. We have included two members of the Supreme Council, two women in the Council of Ministers, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives is a woman,” the Prime Minister-designate said, adding that they had done “the maximum possible to accommodate.”
Who will attend the swearing-in ceremony?
Among those expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony are Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Lok Sabha MPs Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah and CM DK Shivakumar, Telangana CM Revanth Reddy, Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhavinder Sukhu, and ministers from states, Sathisan said.
Opposition leader and former chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Communist Party of India (CPI) secretary Benoy Viswam and IUML president Panakad Sadikal will also attend, news agency ANI quoted Sathisean as saying.
