Two New Ministers Take Oath In Big Kerala Cabinet Reshuffle

Ramachandran Kadannappally of Congress (S) and K B Ganesh Kumar of Kerala Congress (B) took the oath as ministers in Kerala's CPI(M)-led LDF government on Friday.

Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office to the new ministers at 4 pm on Raj Bhavan's lawns.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his cabinet colleagues, Left legislators and leaders of Left alliance partners attended the ceremony.

While Ramachandran took oath in the name of the Constitution, Kumar took oath in the name of god.

The Congress-led UDF boycotted the ceremony in protest against the induction of Kumar, who, according to them, conspired against its late leader and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in the solar panel case.

Both Kumar and Ramachandran were inducted into the ministry following an understanding reached among the partners in the LDF.

While Kumar is an MLA from Pathanapuram constituency, Ramachandran represents Kannur in the legislative assembly.

As per the understanding, Antony Raju of the Democratic Kerala Congress and Ahammad Devarkovil of the Indian National League resigned as transport minister and ports minister, respectively.

Soon after the oath-taking ceremony, the Governor approved the proposal for allocating the portfolios, with a minor reshuffle in it.

As anticipated, Ganesh Kumar was assigned the Transport portfolio, previously managed by Antony Raju.

However, Ramachandran did not receive the Ports portfolio, which was held by Ahammad Devarkovil. Instead, he was given charge of the Registration department, managed by V N Vasavan.

Both Kumar and Ramachandran have been ministers in earlier governments.

Kumar was a part of the UDF government led by A K Antony and held the Transport portfolio in 2001-2003, while Ramachandran had been in charge of Ports and Archaeology during the first term of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government in 2016-2021.

In addition to Registration, Ramachandran will also oversee the Archaeology and Museum Departments.

Cooperation Minister Vasavan has been entrusted with the Ports ministry.

Earlier, the Governor approved the state government's proposal for the induction of two new ministers into the state cabinet.

On Sunday, the LDF announced a cabinet reshuffle and said that the new ministers would be sworn in on December 29.

When the second LDF government assumed power in the state in May 2021, partners in the CPI(M)-led alliance had agreed to allocate cabinet berths to four single MLA parties on a "sharing the term" basis.

The decision to share the term was made citing constitutional clauses that restrict the cabinet to 21 members.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)