Kerala assembly session begins, new members sworn in

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The first session of the 15th Kerala legislative assembly began here on Monday with the new members, 53 of them new faces in the House, swearing in under strict Covid-19 protocols. Of the total140 members, 136 took the oath.
Tanur MLA and minister V Abdurahiman did not attend the session on Monday due to health reasons while Kovalam MLA M Vincent and Nenmara MLA K Babu are in quarantine.
Pro-tem speaker P T A Rahim, who had sworn in last week in front of governor Arif Mohammed Khan in Raj Bhavan, administered the oath of office to the new legislators in alphabetical order.
The oath-taking also coincided with the 76th birthday of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan who made a solemn affirmation. Former chief minister Oommen Chandy set a record by taking oath as an MLA for the12th consecutive term.
Vallikkunnu MLA Abdul Hameed was the first to take oath while Wadakkanchery MLA Xavier Chittilappilly was the last. Manjeswaram MLA A K M Ashraf took the oath in Kannada while Devikulam MLA A Raja did it in Tamil and Mani C Kappan (Pala) and Mathew Kuzhalnadan (Muvattupuzha) in English.
K K Rema, wife of slain RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan who represents Vadakara constituency, was the cynosure of all eyes. She came to the House wearing a badge carrying a picture of TP.
The seating arrangements of members also witnessed a change this time with many young faces becoming ministers. Former opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala went to the second row while new incumbent V S Satheesan came to the front row. M K Muneer, UDF deputy leader in the last assembly, also went to the second row, with P K Kunhalikutty becoming the IUML parliamentary party leader.
Former ministers M M Mani, T P Ramakrishnan, Kadakampally Surendran, A C Moideen and K K Shailaja also shifted to the third row in the treasury benches. Local selfgovernment minister M V Govindan is the number two in the cabinet.
The UDF parliamentary party decided to field Congress MLA P C Vishnunath against CPM candidate M B Rajesh in the speaker election on Tuesday.