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Kerala Governor Sukhdev Singh Kang's reservations put paid to Kerala Congress (B) leader R Balakrishna Pillai's ministerial aspirations. His son K G Ganeshkumar, an actor, was inducted into the Cabinet in his place.
Pillai had been convicted in two corruption cases.
A United Democratic Front ministry, led by A K Antony and leaders of six other constituents of the ruling coalition, was sworn in by the Governor at the Raj Bhawan lawns on Thursday morning.
Kang, who is the former chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, refused to go by the precedent set by his counterpart in Tamil Nadu, Fathima Beevi, when Antony presented the list of the ministers to him on Wednesday. Pillai was forced to nominate his son into the ministry.
However, the Antony Cabinet still has four ministers, who are involved in various corruption and criminal cases. Kerala Congress (M) leader K M Mani, who is one of the senior most ministers in the Cabinet, is also an accused in the graphite case, in which Pillai was sentenced to two years imprisonment.
In fact, a special vigilance court order directing him to appear before it on May 31 came when Mani was celebrating his victory from Pala in Kottayam district. He also faces the charge of illegally selling power to a Bangalore-based private company when he held additional charge of the power ministry.
Mani's former colleague and now Kerala Congress (Jacob) leader T M Jacob is grappling with corruption charges in the Kuriarkutty-Karapppara irrigation project and Muvattupuzha valley irrigation project when he held charge of the irrigation ministry in the previous UDF government.
The Kerala High Court has already given a nod to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau to file a charge-sheet against him in the first case.
Communist Marxist Party leader M V Raghavan has two criminal cases against him. One is related to the death of five Democratic Youth Federation of India activists in police firing. The previous Left Democratic Front government has slapped a murder case against him as the firing had taken place during a function he attended at Koothuparampu in Kannur district in 1992.
The case was borne out on the ground that Raghavan, then a minister, had defied security advice to keep off the function. Raghavan is also an accused in the case related to the attack on CMP leader E P Jayarajan in 1996.
Indian Union Muslim League leader P K Kunhalikutty, the fourth minister, is allegedly embroiled in a sex scandal. Though there is no police case against him for his alleged involvement in the Kozhikode ice cream parlour sex scandal, women's activists are running legal and street battles for including his name in the list of the accused. Women's organisations had launched a campaign against him at his constituency in Kuttippuram during the electioneering. The activists of the Stree Vedi, who spearheaded the campaign, were attacked twice during the campaign.
However, UDF leaders are not attaching much importance to these cases. They claim it is part of the witch-hunt by the previous LDF government. Senior Congress leader Vayalar Ravi has already demanded a through inquiry into all the cases.
However, some of the cases are likely to cause embarrassment to Antony, who is the convenor of the ethics committee of the Congress, if the courts come up with adverse verdicts.
EARLIER REPORT Balakrishna Pillai not to join ministry: PTI
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