Cabinet reshuffle set to be a tightrope walk for Chandy

The exercise will not be a cakewalk for Kerala CM Oommen Chandy as he has to maintain several equations from various groups within the Congress party

Reshuffling of the Oommen Chandy's Cabinet is now on the cards and it is likely to happen after the Assembly session, which is set to commence from June 9.

The reshuffle comes as the Congress party is aiming for a change in the Cabinet as its image has been hit by issues like solar power scam and the revelations of Saritha Nair, the main accused in the scam, against MLA, AP Abdullakkuty.  

The exercise will not be a cakewalk for the chief minister as he has to maintain several equations from various groups within the Congress party. The Kerala Congress (B) faction served an ultimatum to re-induct KB Ganesh Kumar into the Cabinet, who resigned as a fallout of his family issues.

While the faction has been pressing for his induction for the last one year, its leader, R Balakrishna Pillai, also gave an ultimatum to the chief minister. He categorically stated that a 22-page revelation of Saritha Nair was with him and he would release this into the public if their demand was not met. The document was stated to have revelations of Saritha about her relations with some of the Congress leaders.

The Congress is holding the portfolios of Forests and Sports ever since the resignation of Ganesh Kumar.  The party has to return them when the latter enters the Cabinet. If this happens, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan, number 3 among Congress ministers, will be left with the department of Transport.   

Also, the total ministers will be 22 if Ganesh is included. All previous Cabinets in Kerala had a maximum 20 ministers.   

In the event of Kumar's induction, a Congress minister has to resign.

However, the Congress and the UDF can ignore the demand of the Kerala Congress as the UDF has the majority in the Assembly with the inclusion of RSP. But the document with Pillai is a potential nightmare to several leaders of Congress, including some of the newly-elected MPs.

If a Congress minister has to resign, the crucial question is who would lose out. With the induction of Ramesh Chennithala into the Cabinet as home minister, the (I) faction has more ministers than the (A) faction, led by Chandy himself.

There are reports that minister for Co-operation, CN Balakrishnan, who is also an (I) group nominee, would be affected. However, Balakrishnan categorically stated nobody can remove him from the Cabinet.

There is also a proposal that all Congress ministers should resign and pave the way for new faces.

Meanwhile, KPCC president VM Sudheeran has ruled out an immediate possibility of a change in the Cabinet and told the media the issue had not been discussed in the party forum so far.