Kerala governor appoints Pinarayi Vijayan as CM, invites him to form govt

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Governor Justice (Retd) P Sathasivam on Monday invited Pinarayi Vijayan, who was elected leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) legislature party, to form the new government in Kerala. Earlier, Vijayan was unanimously elected Leader of the LDF legislature party. [caption id=“attachment_2795562” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pinarayi Vijayan. News18[/caption] In the 140-member Kerala Assembly, LDF has 91 MLAs, including CPM’s 58, CPI’s 19 and five of CPM-IND. Vijayan’s name was suggested by party secretary Kodieyri Balakrishnan as per the decision of the state committee and it was approved by all the MLAs. After the meeting, Balakrishnan met the governor and staked the claim of LDF to form the next government and handed over letters intimating election of Vijayan as the leader of the LDF Parliamentary party and expression of support from Legislature parties leaders of other constituents of the LDF. E Chandrasekharan of CPI and AK Saseendran of NCP were also present. Accordingly, as per the provisions of Article 164 (1) of the Constitution, the governor appointed Vijayan as the chief minister and sought from him the list of persons to be appointed as ministerial colleagues, a Raj Bhavan press release said. The swearing-in-ceremony of the proposed Cabinet will be at 4 pm on 25 May at the Central Stadium.