Thiruvananthapuram, With the newly elected Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala completing the first round of cabinet seat sharing, the first batch of ministers will be sworn in Wednesday.
Besides Oommen Chandy, who will be sworn in as the chief minister, six other ministers will take the oath of office on the lawns of Raj Bhavan Wednesday 2 p.m, UDF convenor P.P. Thankachen said Tuesday.
The ministers to take oath are P.K Kunhalikutty (Indian Union Muslim League), K.M. Mani (Kerala Congress-Mani), K.P. Mohanan (Socialist Janata-Democratic), T.M. Jaacob (Kerala Congress-Jacob), Shibu Baby John (RSP-B), and K.B. Ganesh Kumar (Kerala Congress-Pillai).
The UDF won 72 seats, which include 38 seats for the Congress, 20 for the IUML, nine for the KC(M), two for the SJ-D and one each for the KC(P), KC (Jacob) and the RSP-B.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Democratic Front won 68 seats.
Thankachan said that the ministry will initially have 20 ministers, including Chandy.
A second round of swearing-in will be held May 23.
‘The post of speaker, deputy speaker and parliamentary affairs minister would be announced later. The portfolios of the six ministers swearing in tomorrow (Wednesday) will be announced by the chief minister at the first cabinet meeting later in the day,’ said Thankachan.
After the seat sharing talks led by Chandy, the IUML was allotted four cabinet posts, the KC(M) two and one each for the four other allies.
The Congress will have nine cabinet posts.
The IUML had demanded five berths while KC(M) wanted either three or two along with the post of the speaker. But the Congress stood firm.
The next round of seat sharing talks will begin with the allocation of portfolios. Later, the Congress will choose its own ministers from the remaining 37 legislators.
Among those to be sworn in Wednesday, Shibu Baby John and Mohanan will be debutant ministers
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