Pinarayi Vijayan

Pinarayi Vijayan is an Indian politician. He is the current Chief Minister of Kerala. He was born on 24 May, 1945 in Pinarayi in Malabar district. His father’s name was Konan and his mother’s name was Kalyani. He completed his schooling from Government school in his hometown.

After completing his school, he worked as a handloom weaver before joining Pre-University course in the Government Brennen College, Thalassery. He also completed his graduation from the same college. He married to Kamala Vijayan, who is a retired teacher. He has two children; their names are Veena and Vivek. Vivek work in HSBC bank in Abu Dhabi, and Veena lives in Bangalore managing a start up. Pinarayi Vijayan lives in Chief Minister Residence at Trivandrum.

He entered into politics in his college, where he joined the student union. Later in 1964, he joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist).After that, he became the secretary of Kerala Student Federation (KSF), which was changed to Student Federation of India (SFI). He became the state president of KSF later on. After some time, he moved to Kerala State Youth Federation (KSYF), which became Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI). He was the part of the communist’s political activities that were organized from hide outs.

Due to this, he was in prison for one and a half year. After some time of coming out of jail, he was elected as the president of the Kerala State Co-Operative Bank. During the time of emergency, he was tortured by police. Later, he became the Kannur District Secretary at CPI, within three years of becoming CPI; he became a member of State Secretariat. In 1970, he got elected at assembly. From 1996 to 1998, he was electric minister in the E.K. Nayanar Ministry. In 2002, he was elected as the Politburo of the CPI(M).

On 26 May 2007, he was removed along with V.S. Achuthanandan from the politburo, but later on when allegations were dropped he was reinstated back at Politburo. In May 2016, he was elected as the chief minister of Kerala by CPI(M). During that period, he was appointed as the leader of Left Democratic Front Government. He took the seat on 25 May, the day when he took the oath in front of 19-members of cabinet.

While he was holding the position of Chief Minister, he introduced various schemes such as Haritha Keralam Mission, Project LIFE, Ardram Mission, and Comprehensive Education Reforms. He also introduced an all-woman police squad in Kerala. The squad was known as ‘Pink Patrol,’ to ensure the safety of the women of Kerala.