The ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) State committee will take some crucial decisions on expanding its membership at its next meeting, LDF convener A. Vijayaraghavan has said.
Briefing reporters after the LDF State committee meeting here on Monday, Mr. Vijayaraghavan said the alliance would take a collective decision on the question of bringing in more allies after a detailed discussion. The front constituents had been asked to come up with their proposals on the subject. The decision would be taken based on the proposals, he said.
The CPI(M) leadership had decided to bring in long-term associates as full-fledged members of the alliance over a month ago. Although some discussions had taken place between two factions of the Kerala Congress, led by R. Balakrishna Pillai and Scaria Thomas, on a possible merger, they could not arrive at any understanding.
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The issue was likely to drag for at least a month now as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan would leave for the U.S. for treatment on August 19 and will be back only by mid-September.
Chief Whip
The LDF convener said the State committee had endorsed the proposal for reinduction of E.P. Jayarajan into the Cabinet, shuffle in the portfolios held by the CPI(M) Ministers, and allocation of the Government Chief Whip post with Cabinet rank to the CPI.
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Mr. Jayarajan would be sworn in at the Raj Bhavan at 10 a.m. on Tuesday and attend the Cabinet meeting to be held later in the day.