V. D. Satheesan took oath as the chief minister of Kerala on 18 May 2026 at the Central Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram, along with a 20-member cabinet, according to Onmanorama’s live report of the ceremony. The Congress-led United Democratic Front won 102 of the 140 seats in the Assembly, and the alliance returns to power after a decade in which the Left Democratic Front governed for two consecutive terms.
The oath was administered by Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. The ministers sworn in, in order, were P. K. Kunhalikutty, Ramesh Chennithala, Sunny Joseph, K. Muraleedharan, Mons Joseph, Shibu Baby John, Anoop Jacob, C. P. John, A. P. Anil Kumar, N. Samsudheen, P. C. Vishnunadh, Roji M. John, Bindu Krishna, M. Liju, K. M. Shaji, P. K. Basheer, V. E. Abdul Gafoor, T. Siddique, K. A. Thulasi and O. J. Janeesh.
The make-up of the cabinet is described in the report. It includes 14 first-time ministers, two women and two representatives of the Scheduled Castes. The Indian Union Muslim League secured five berths, though the report does not give the number of Congress ministers.
The ceremony drew national leaders. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra attended, along with chief ministers from Congress-governed states: Siddaramaiah of Karnataka, D. K. Shivakumar, Revanth Reddy of Telangana and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh. The outgoing chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, who now leads the opposition, and the CPI(M) state secretary M. V. Govindan were also present.
Other offices were filled. Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan was named the Speaker, Shanimol Usman the Deputy Speaker and Apu John Joseph the Chief Whip. The allocation of portfolios had not been finalised when the report was published, and it was to be sent to the Governor after the ceremony, so the report does not say who holds which department.
The seat tally can be compared with the 2021 result. The report describes the Left as having been in power for two consecutive terms, and India TV’s live report of the counting day said that the Left Democratic Front was defeated after a ten-year tenure and that the BJP won three seats in the state, which it described as breaking an electoral drought. The sources reviewed do not give the Left’s seat count.
The result adds to the Congress’s position in the states. It governs Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana and Himachal Pradesh, as the list of chief ministers at the ceremony suggests, and it is a junior partner in the government of Tamil Nadu. The party won only a limited number of seats elsewhere in the 2026 round, as IndiaX24 reports in other articles, so Kerala is its main gain in the spring elections.
The Governor, the Speaker and the council of ministers are the three elements that the report sets out. IndiaX24 has also reported on a Kerala Assembly resolution about the Chief Election Commissioner, passed in a separate episode, which shows the state’s politics continuing to engage with national institutions.
The sources reviewed do not describe the government’s policy priorities. A Wikipedia page lists the ministry, and another page refers to a 2026 Kerala chief minister crisis, but neither could be reviewed in detail, so no account of them is given here.
The UDF’s return, with a two-thirds-plus majority of 102 seats in a house of 140, gives the new government a strong position, and the next months will show how it uses it.
Featured image: The Kerala Government Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram (file photo). Photo by Ajeeshcphilip, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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