NCP(SP) decides to replace Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran with Thomas K Thomas in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet

Possible cabinet reshuffle in Pinarayi Vijayan government as NCP seeks to replace Forest Minister with Kuttanad MLA Thomas K Thomas.

Signalling a possible reshuffle in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet, State president of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-Sharad Pawar) P.. Chacko said the party’s national leadership has resolved to supplant Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran with the Kuttanad MLA, Thomas K Thomas, in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.

Mr Chacko told reporters that he, Mr Saseendran, and Mr Thomas would meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on October 3 and personally communicate national president Sharad Pawar’s decision. 

Mr Thomas had recently publicly staked his claim to replace Mr Saseendran in the cabinet, stirring a rebellion in the NCP.

Subsequently, a delegation of NCP-SP leaders from Kerala led by Mr Chacko met Mr Pawar in Mumbai last week.

Mr Saseendran also said he would accept Mr Pawar’s decision. According to an LDF insider, if he relinquished his ministerial portfolio for Mr Thomas, Mr Saseendran could seek political accommodation as the NCP-SP State president.

A faction in the NCP had lobbied for Mr Thomas’s elevation to the cabinet to keep the Christian community in Alappuzha, a crucial electoral block, in the LDF fold ahead of the local body elections in 2025.