There are many people who fear that with the repeated thumping victory in the second term also, Pinarayi Vijayan would become a more arrogant dictator both in the state and in the communist party. The main example they point out is the celebration planned for the swearing-in of the new members of the cabinet on May 20th, when the whole state is under lock down and the capital city is under very strict triple lockdown.
Even though requests and objections came from many quarters including Indian Medical Association, Pinarayi Vijayan would not budge even an inch from his decision. This attitude has caused great apprehensions even among those people who voted him to power.
During the second term of Pinarayi Vijayan's rule, all the cabinet ministers are new faces. When all the sitting ministers were removed, all expected that health minister K K Shailaja would be given an exception and continue in the office, as she has received global acclamation by tackling the first wave of covid very successfully in the state and is still dealing with the pandemic during the lockdown days too.
But Pinarayi Vijayan who is said to have hijacked the CPI (M) politburo has decided to sideline even K K Shailaja, but he chose to be an exception to become the Chief Minister once again.
Here is the list of the new minsters in the Kerala Cabinet in 2021.
(Former minister's names in brackets)
1. Chief Minister - Pinarayi Vijayan (Pinarayi Vijayan)
2. Health - Veena George (K K Shailaja)
3. Finance - K M Balagopalan (Thomas Isaac)
4. Revenue - K Rajan
5. Agriculture - P Prasad
6. Electricity - K Krishnan kutty
7. Forest - A K Shasheendran
8. Transport - Antony Raju
9. Irrigation - Roshi Augustine
10. Industry, Law - P Rajeev
11. Excise , Local - M V Govindan
12. Registration, Co-operation - V N Vasavan
13. Devaswom, Parliamentary - K Radhakrishnan
14. Fisheries, film - Saji Cherian
15. Education, Employment - V Sivankutty
16. Higher Education - R Bindu
17. PWD, Tourism - Mohammed Riyas
18. Port, Museum - Ahammed Devarkoil
19. Food, Civil Supplies - G R Anil
20. Animal welfare, diary - Chinchu Rani
21. Minority, youth, NRI, sports - V Abdu Rahman
Speaker - K K Rajesh
CM's Private Secretary - K K Ragesh
