PALAKKAD: A mature conduct, required of a speaker, and an exemplary stint as a parliamentarian in the Lok Sabha led the CPM state secretariat to pick M B Rajesh to fill the shoes of M V Govindan in the second Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet. The decision to hand over the heavyweight portfolios of local administration and excise held by Govindan -- who has taken over as the party’s state secretary -- to Rajesh reflects the confidence the party has in the 51-year old.
“This is yet another responsibility entrusted by the party,” Rajesh told reporters on Friday.“I will try to execute my duties to the best of my ability. It was three decades ago that I took membership in the party. From then, whether at the organisational level or at the parliamentary level, I have taken up all the assignments entrusted to me wholeheartedly.”
He said the experiences gained as a Speaker for 15 months have been invaluable.“The Kerala assembly has had a great tradition and history and I believe I could do justice in the role of a speaker,” he said.To a tricky question point that, as a speaker, he had asked A N Shamseer — the speaker-designate — to sit down the most number of times in the assembly, Rajesh said it was the powers conferred on the speaker that made him do so.
“Any person holding the post can intervene, if needed,” he said.Rajesh has always maintained he has never written any PSC examination as, from the beginning, he had always striven to be a full-time party worker. Rising through the ranks, he had donned the roles of SFI state secretary and DYFI national and state president. Currently, Rajesh is a CPM state committee member. In 2009 and 2014, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Palakkad.
In 2014, he trounced media baron M P Veerendra Kumar by more than one lakh votes -- 1,05,300 to be precise. But the 2019 Lok Sabha polls provided a shocker, as he was defeated by V K Sreekandan of the Congress by 11,637 votes. That Rajesh was not prepared for it was evident as the CPM cadre had even composed the victory song, which was leaked on social media after his defeat.
In 2021, Rajesh came back in style by defeating Congress young turk V T Balram, who had held the seat for two terms, in Thrithala to become a legislator. And he went on to be chosen as the speaker of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly. He is married to Dr Ninitha Kanicheri, who is an assistant professor with the Sree Sankara University in Kalady. They have two children, Niranjana and Priyadatta.