Chandy gets his team

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: Ending all speculation, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Saturday announced the names of nine more Congress ministers for his fledgling Cabinet with the eloquent postscript that ‘certain eligible persons had to be left out.’ Aryadan Mohammed, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, Adoor Prakash, K C Joseph, A P Anil Kumar, C N Balakrishnan, K Babu, V S Sivakumar and P K Jayalakshmi have made it to the Cabinet.
The Speaker has not been decided yet, Chandy said.
The nine Congress ministers will be sworn in along with the three Muslim League ministers and the Kerala Congress(M)’s P J Joseph at 4 pm on Monday at the Raj Bhavan.
The portfolios of the ministers too will be finalised on Monday, he said.
Of the nine, four have been ministers before _ Aryadan, Thiruvanchoor, Adoor Prakash and Anil Kumar.
Among the new faces, P K Jayalakshmi holds the distinction of being the first tribal to become a minister in Kerala.
Jayalakshmi, 29, is the youngest and the lone woman in the Oommen Chandy Ministry.
Chandy, who appeared a tad dejected during the media briefing, said all nine were eligible to be ministers but ‘we could not include some we would have liked to.
This is because we had to restrict the size of the Cabinet to 20.’ He admitted his disappointment at the omissions and said only eligible persons had found a place in the list.

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