THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ending days of uncertainty and political deadlock, Chief Minister V D Satheesan on Wednesday finally allocated portfolios to his cabinet colleagues, with both his camp and the K C Venugopal faction reaching a consensus and securing their key demands.
In a first for Kerala, a Dalit leader has been entrusted with the crucial revenue portfolio, with Venugopal loyalist A P Anil Kumar getting the post. Despite intense pressure, Satheesan succeeded in securing the Health and Devaswom portfolios for his lone cabinet supporter, K Muraleedharan.
The chief minister retained 33 portfolios, including finance, lotteries, ports, law and general administration.
“Venugopal continues to wield significant influence within the Congress legislature party (CLP). Apart from Deputy Speaker Shanimol Osman and ministers Muraleedharan and C P John, Satheesan is surrounded by Venugopal loyalists,” said a senior Congress leader.
As expected Ramesh Chennithala was allotted the home and vigilance portfolios. Satheesan’s loyalists within the UDF suffered setbacks in the portfolio tussle. C P John, who had sought ports and co-operation, had to settle for motor vehicles and transport, while Shibu Baby John was given forest and wildlife instead of the irrigation and water resources departments he had pushed for.
It was largely decided in the initial rounds itself that the revenue portfolio would go to Anil Kumar, in line with the Venugopal camp’s demand. However, after intervention from the Syro-Malabar Church, the leadership considered handing the portfolio to Sunny Joseph and offering Anil Kumar ports along with devaswom instead. The chief minister, however, refused to part with the ports department.
As part of a last-minute arrangement, Anil Kumar was allotted revenue and Sunny Joseph was assigned electricity, environment, parliamentary affairs and ANERT.
While M Liju was allocated co-operation along with excise, O J Janeesh received the registration portfolio among other departments. Senior leader Bindu Krishna was given labour and animal husbandry in addition to the women and child welfare portfolio.
The final portfolio allocation has deepened fault lines in the Congress party’s ties with the Church. Apart from tensions with the Syro-Malabar Church, Satheesan’s backing for handing the fisheries portfolio to the Indian Union Muslim League has also strained relations with the Latin Catholic Church.
IUML sources told TNIE that Satheesan had assured the League leadership that the fisheries portfolio would be allotted to compensate the party for being denied the higher education portfolio.
“That is why we remained confident even when the Church opposed giving us the fisheries portfolio,” a League leader said.
Portfolio distribution completed on Monday itself, says CM
Speaking about the delayed portfolio distribution amongst the new ministers, Chief Minister V D Satheesan said that the division had been completed by Monday itself. “It is true that the distribution was completed only by Monday late at night. We didn’t know that the Governor was out of station on Tuesday. When he returned, we handed over the list to him this morning,” he said in the press meet on Wednesday morning. Hours after the chief minister’s response, the gazette comprising the list of departments and portfolios was published.