Why KK Shailaja did not find a spot in Pinarayi 2.0

Kerala’s incumbent Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is suddenly an object of scorn on social media as the widely popular leader, KK Shailaja, was denied a second term as the health minister in his new Cabinet. From celebrities to the proletariat, Vijayan is thrashed in fury. That it came a day after the government announced having a 500-people participating, COVID-19-risk, swearing-in ceremony has taken some sheen away from the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF)’s massive victory in the April polls.

Yet, is it possible to perceive this episode in a rational way? Why should Shailaja be Kerala’s health minister, again?

The argument from the Left is that it wants to adopt a generational change by going for a Cabinet of fresh faces. Demonstrably, everybody from the CPI(M) in the previous Cabinet (except the Chief Minister) is dropped to make way for several first-term, younger ministers.

It seems attractive from the vantage point of both younger and older politicians who feel they are side lined by established figures. It is also a continuation of what the Left did during the polls: everyone, including high-profile leaders like Thomas Isaac — who contested consecutively for two terms was benched. It feels the public broadly welcomed such changes as it helped the LDF win 99 out of the 140 seats.

But wouldn’t Shailaja’s performance count? Wouldn’t her popularity — she got the highest margin of more than 60,000 votes in the polls (if that is an indicator) — count?

Before coming to it, we have to look at why the Left in Kerala wants to rebrand itself. The Left — especially Vijayan — seems to be taking lessons from history.

After bitterly fighting and winning an internal war with long-time rival and veteran leader VS Achuthanandan, Vijayan today is an authoritarian voice in the party. This factional feud nearly finished the political careers of many in the CPI(M)’s Kerala unit. Having a generational change now may revive the careers of some of Vijayan’s personal favourites, and/or adversely affect those out of favour. It will also hold him accountable in 2026, when he is expected to step down after serving as Chief Minister for two terms.

The Left also seems keen to be seen as ending an internal criticism plaguing it since the 15th Party Congress in 1995: parliamentary opportunism, where individuals pocket parliamentary positions and create their own fiefdom, rather than building the party.

After it lost a series of elections and mass support in West Bengal and elsewhere, both the leading Left parties in Kerala — the CPI(M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) — reflected on this issue at various forums. With the current changes the Left parties in Kerala are taking it forward to the execution stage.

Critics, however, see it as an indicator of a popularly-elected government falling short of expectations. They put forward five arguments.

First, Shailaja was a good performer and her experience is required to beat the pandemic. Second, she was a vote winner and the party should have embraced her popularity. Third, if Vijayan is taking the moral high ground, how does he explain his son-in-law and the party’s acting secretary’s wife inducted into his Cabinet? Fourth, many argue that Vijayan is jealous of Shailaja’s popularity and is trying to side line/finish her political career. Fifth, she could have been allowed to continue as a part of affirmative action.

Do these arguments hold up against reason?

Shailaja’s success can be replicated. This is because Kerala’s pandemic response, as none less than the World Health Organization itself noted, can be attributed to its experience and investment made in emergency preparedness and outbreak responses in the past. Shailaja unleashed its full potential, and deserves due credit. In fact, her predecessor in the previous Left government, PK Sreemathi, made equally a good name for helming the health department. Both were first-time ministers, and somebody made way for them to be there.

Shailaja was a source of solace and strength for any average Keralite, especially women, when tensions were high. Not only did it make her widely popular in Kerala, which could have made the party endearing to many non-committal voters in the polls, but her large-scale following in the global press made her an unusually popular communist on the international stage.

But, fair credit for the party’s winning streak in election after election over the last two years, would be shared not just by Shailaja and Vijayan, but a group of rooted leaders such as MV Govindan and VN Vasavan (both inducted into the new Cabinet).

Anyway, the CPI(M), with its hard-heeled hierarchy and tough disciplinary rules, has never been one really known to take the pulse of popularity in making decisions. Shailaja, who has won three elections, and lost once, knows it well. She does not really have the power of someone like Achuthanandan, the only leader before whom the party bowed in some manner in the last two decades, because he could sabotage the prospects across the state.

Next, the allegations of nepotism are the ones that are the weakest. It reeks of political ignorance. The ‘son-in-law’, and the ‘wife’ in question are PA Muhammad Riyas and R Bindu. Riyas, 45, may have gotten national media’s attention recently when he married Vijayan’s daughter. But he has been a Left worker since his school days, and has worked his way up, serving in most key positions in the party’s youth outfits. He has been a popular Muslim face of the Left in north Kerala for at least two decades.

Bindu too has been an active politician in central Kerala besides being a college professor and vice-principal of Kerala Varma College in Thrissur. She also rose through the ranks starting out as a student worker, and was the former Mayor of Thrissur.

One must say that the last two criticisms of vendetta politics and affirmative action, do not really have a clear answer.

Vijayan may want to side line Shailaja, or he may not. But effectively, it is what is likely to happen. Without a portfolio, she would not have much skin in the game to ask for another ticket in 2026, unless the party decides to promote her. It could, in fact, have made her the Chief Minister rather than Vijayan, who is 75 and of ailing health.

The party lost an opportunity to make a conversation to include more women to the frontlines, as a recourse of the historical neglect women faced within the Left and elsewhere. The Left, in fact, has entered 10 women into the legislature and three women into the Cabinet this time; both unprecedented numbers. But Shailaja’s exclusion will split the masses endorsing such affirmative action. This is besides scoring a savvy political goal and avoiding unfavourable optics. But for that, the Left may have to think in terms of men and women — and enter into the era of gender justice — rather than behaving like a totalitarian system that determines the life of ‘comrades’.