OR Kelu, senior CPI-M leader from the tribal community and Mananthavady MLA ,was sworn in as a minister in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet at a special ceremony at the Raj Bhavan here on Sunday evening. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office to Kelu.

Chief Minister Vijayan, other cabinet members, opposition leader V D Satheesan, Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty and others attended the function.

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Kelu replaces K Radhakrishnan stepped down on Tuesday as Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Parliamentary Affairs and Devaswom, after being elected to the Lok Sabha from Alathur constituency.

Though CPI-M got its first tribal minister, the LDF government has come under fire for not giving devaswom portfolio to Kelu. The Mananthavady MLA is likely to get the portfolios of Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.

The decision to divest the Devaswom and Parliamentary affairs portfolios from Kelu has come in for strong criticism from various quarters, some even alleging caste bias.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly VD Satheesan said Chief Minister Vijayan, who rightly opposed the non-appointment of Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh as pro-tem Speaker in the Lok Sabha, took a different stand when it came to Kelu. “The state government showed the same attitude in Kelu’s case as the Centre did when it did not make K Suresh, the senior most MP in the Lok Sabha, the pro-tem Speaker,” Satheesan said.

The Left leadership chose to justify the move not to give the Devaswom portfolio to Kelu saying that he lacks administrative experience similar to K Radhakrishnan.

BJP Kerala president K Surendran said that denial of important portfolios to Kelu is an insult to the tribal community.

“It is a gross injustice. We have the opinion that all those portfolios handled by Radhakrishnan should be given to Kelu. The CPI-M should make clear whether Kelu lacks experience,” he said.

“Is there any issue in giving Devaswom and Parliamentary portfolios to Kelu,” Surendran asked.

Countering the Left leaders’ justification that lack of experience is the reason why Devaswom portfolio is not allotted to Kelu, Surendran asked whether P A Mohamed Riyas was given the Public Works and Tourism portfolios considering his experience.

The Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha (AGMS) also came out against the LDF government’s decision to deny the Devaswom portfolio to Kelu.

“We condemn the CPI-M’s decision to deny the Devaswom department to Kelu, who belongs to the Scheduled Tribe community. He was not given the Devaswom portfolio to appease upper castes. The upper caste leaders may have asked the chief minister to change the portfolio and he made the move considering the setback in the election. This decision is an example of what Radhakrishnan had said earlier after becoming a minister that caste discrimination still exists in many areas,” said AGMS leader M Geethanandan.

Meanwhile, former Minister K Radhakrishnan on Sunday justified the LDF’s decision not to give the Devaswom portfolio, which had been handled by him, to O R Kelu.

Radhakrishnan said newcomers should become capable of handling the portfolios assigned to them and the present portfolio is entrusted to Kelu with an expectation that he would handle it well.

The 54-year-old CPI-M leader is the second leader from the Scheduled Tribes(ST) to become a minister. Earlier Congress leader PK Jayalakshmi, who also belonged to a ST community , was part of the 2011-16 Oommen Chandy cabinet. In 2016, Kelu got elected to the state assembly by defeating PK Jayalakshmi. He repeated his success in 2021 from the Mananthavady constituency.

Kelu is the first leader from Scheduled Tribe to be elected to the CPI-M state committee. He is now chairing the assembly panel on SC/St welfare.