• CPM veteran Pinarayi Vijayan, who led the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to an unprecedented consecutive victory in the April 6 Assembly polls, took oath as chief minister of Kerala for the second time along with 20 ministers.

• Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office to 77-year-old Vijayan and ministers.

• The CPM-led LDF retained power by winning 99 out of 140 seats in the Assembly polls. The Congress-led UDF won 41 seats. 

• The 15th Kerala Assembly has its peculiar features in many ways as it is for the first time that the House is going to witness a government and chief minister for the second consecutive term after completing a full term.

• CM Vijayan will retain key portfolios including Home, Vigilance and IT in the successive LDF government.

Second innings as CM

• Vijayan was born in 1944 in Kannur.

• He became the Kannur district secretary of the Kerala Students Federation while studying in Brennen College in Thalassery. He went on to become state secretary of KSF and, later, its state president.

• In 1968, at the age of 24, Vijayan found a place in the Kannur district committee of the CPM.

• Two years later, he was fielded from Kuthuparamba and Vijayan became an MLA at the age of 26.

• Vijayan earlier had a short stint as the state’s power minister during 1996-98 before taking over the party reins. 

• Vijayan served as CPM state committee secretary from 1998 to 2015.

• In 2016, following LDF’s victory in the Assembly polls, the party chose him for the role of chief minister.

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