THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A special Cabinet meeting scheduled on Friday failed to meet owing to lack of quorum. Of the 19 ministers, only six turned up for the special meeting, scheduled to extend the validity of certain ordinances. The Cabinet will again meet on Monday. Sources with the Chief Minister’s Office confirmed that a Cabinet meet was indeed scheduled. However, it did not convene as majority of the ministers were not present. The Chief Minister’s Office had already informed the ministers about the special meet. However only the CPM ministers who were in the city for the party secretariat turned up.
The four CPI ministers, along with the nominees of the NCP, Congress (S) and some CPM ministers, failed to turn up for the meet. Meanwhile Parliamentary Affairs Minister A K Balan denied reports in this regard saying no Cabinet meeting was scheduled.As per the Secretariat manual, there’s no quorum for Cabinet. There’s only an internal directive that a majority of the ministers should be present.
Balan told Express that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan wanted to discuss about an ordinance with all ministers and hence a meeting was called.“There was no cabinet meeting. In fact the CM wanted to discuss certain matters related to ordinances with the ministers. The cabinet is meeting on Monday,” Balan said. Speaking to the media, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said there’s nothing unusual about the absence of ministers for the special cabinet.