THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan was elected Speaker of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly on Friday.
Of the 140 members, pro tem Speaker G Sudhakaran, the returning officer for the election, abstained from voting. Of the 139 votes polled, Radhakrishnan, fielded by the UDF, secured 101 votes. While the LDF’s AC Moideen received 35 votes, the BJP’s BB Gopakumar polled three votes.
Radhakrishnan, 76, has been a member of the Legislative Assembly since 1991. An eight time MLA, he served as Home Minister in the 2011-2016 Oommen Chandy government. He later handled the Forest, Transport, Sports, Cinema and Environment portfolios for the remainder of the ministry’s tenure.
In the 2026 Assembly election, he won from Kottayam with a margin of nearly 36,000 votes.