When three women made it to the Pinarayi Vijayan 2.0 Cabinet, it marked the highest women representation in a State Cabinet in recent times.
While R. Bindu, who won from the Irinjalakkuda constituency and Chinchu Rani, who was elected from the Chadayamangalam constituency, are first-timers to the State legislature, it is second straight win for Veena George from the Aranmula Assembly constituency.
A former Mayor
Prof. Bindu, who had earlier served as the Thrissur Mayor, is married to A. Vijayaraghavan, the acting State secretary of the CPI(M) and is also its Central Committee member.
Before entering politics, Prof. Bindu taught English language and literature at Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur.
A debut
Though its her debut in the State Assembly, Ms. Rani, a CPI leader from Kollam district, was earlier elected to civic bodies.
The party had to overcome resistance from some of its local local leaders and units to field her as as candidate in the constituency for the legislative polls.
She is also the only woman the party has picked up as its representative in the State Cabinet.
Journalist-turned-politician
Ms. George left behind a journalism career of over one-and-a-half decades in television to join politics. She marked her political entry in a grand manner defeating K. Sivadasan Nair of the Congress from the Aranmula constituency, which was once considered as a UDF stronghold in 2016.
The CPI(M), which reposed faith on Ms. George, had fielded her as a candidate in the 2019 Parliament election. However, she failed to make a mark in the election to the lower house of Parliament.
In her second innings to the State legislature, Ms. George scored an impressive win by increasing her victory margin. She was also the presenter of the television programme Naam Munnottu in which Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan interacted with select audience.
