UDF's 20-member cabinet to have 10 from Congress

Congress will have 10 members including the chief minister in the new coalition cabinet of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala. Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) will have four ministers and Kerala Congress (Mani) faction will get two. A consensus over this was evolved in Thiruvanananthapuram today after a series of discussions.

The decision was announced by PP Thankachan, convenor of the Front. All other parties, including Socialist Janata Dal (Democratic), Kerala Congress (Jacob), Kerala Congress (Balakrishna Pillai) and RSP-B will get one each, taking the council of ministers to 20.

Chief minister Oommen Chandy and leaders of other parties like KM Mani, P K Kunjalikkutty, T M Jacob, K P Mohanan, K B Ganeshkumar and Shibu Baby John will be sworn in as ministers by Wednesday afternoon. Thankachan also said the decision on the posts of speaker, deputy speaker and the Parliamentary affairs minister would be taken later.

Kerala Congress (Mani) was adamant on getting three berths in the cabinet and this paralysed the consensus process for a long time, but later K M Mani agreed for two. It is known that the party would also get the post of deputy speaker. The party's main intention was to include P C George, a senior leader, in the cabinet, but Oommen Chandy resisted this move pointing out the communal imbalance the would result in the cabinet.

There are five Christians in the cabinet including the chief minister. If the Congress were to accommodate senior leaders like K C Joseph, it would increase the number of Christians in the council of ministers. A second round swearing-in ceremony would be held on May 23 after which the full 20-member cabinet takes shape.

The list of Congress ministers should be approved by the party high command and for this Oommen Chandy and KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala will leave for Delhi. The probable list include Aryadan Muhammed, K C Joseph, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, K Babu, Palode Ravi, K Achuthan, V S Shivakumar, K Muraleedharan, Adoor Prakash, V D Satheeshan, K P Anilkumar and K P Jayalakshmi.

Portofolio allocation of the minsiters is expected to be done later and it is reported that K M Mani would get financne and law while P J Joseph would get irrigation. K P Mohanan is expected to get agriculture and Shibu Baby John is likely to be given the labour portfolio. UDF convenor said that the chief minister would decide on this after the first cabinet meeting on Wednesday.