O R Kelu replaces K Radhakrishnan, first CPM minister from Wayanad, change in portfolios

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mananthavady MLA O R Kelu will become the Minister of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe. He is filling the vacancy of K Radhakrishnan elected to the Parliament. Kelu is also a member of the CPM state committee. He was chosen by the CPM state committee meet being convened in Thiruvananthapuram. Kelu is the first CPM Minister in the history of Wayanad.

Kelu will get only Scheduled Caste welfare. The devaswom handled by Radhakrishnan will be given to Minister V N Vasavan and M B Rajesh will get parliamentary affairs.

A member of the Kurichya community, Kelu is also the first Scheduled Tribe leader to reach the CPM state committee. He is also the chairman of the Legislative Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Scheduled Tribes. He is also the state president of Adivasi Kshema Samithi, the tribal body of the party. In the 2016 assembly elections, he defeated then minister P K Jayalakshmi and became the MLA of Mananthavady, a reserved constituency. He also won in 2021.

Kelu entered parliamentary politics in 2000 as a grama panchayat member from Edayoorkunnu ward of Thirunelli grama panchayat. He then became the president of Thirunelli grama panchayat for 10 years in 2005 and 2010. Later in 2015, he became a member of Mananthavady Block Panchayat from Thirunelli division.