Pinarayi Vijayan takes oath as Kerala CM for 2nd time, 20 ministers inducted

The LDF government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan assumed office for its second consecutive term on Thursday after Governor Arif Mohammad Khan administered the oath of office to Vijayan and his 20 cabinet colleagues at an event at the central stadium.

Vijayan, who is the first Chief Minister in Kerala to get a second consecutive mandate, began his second innings with 17 new faces in the 21-member cabinet — eight ministers are first-time legislators. The Cabinet has three women members now.

Vijayan had dropped all CPI(M) ministers from his previous regime, recruiting a new team as Kerala battles the pandemic. Less than 500 people attended the event due to Covid-19 protocols. The Congress had opposed the event citing Covid restrictions and the party-led UDF boycotted it on Thursday.

The Kerala High Court had on Wednesday directed the government to restrict the number of participants at the function in view of the pandemic.

Congratulating Vijayan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “Congratulations to Shri @vijayanpinarayi Ji on taking oath as CM and commencing his second term in office.”

After the first Cabinet meeting, Vijayan said the government aims to alleviate poverty within the next five years.

Destitute families and individuals would be identified and their life would be brought above the poverty line, he said. “A survey would be conducted to fix the distress factors and to mitigate them as part of achieving poverty alleviation,” he said. He said the state would come up with strong legislation to ensure that people do not get deprived of their houses due to the debt recovery process. “A government panel was assigned to submit a report on this by July 15.”