Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today (Sep 5, 2004) expanded his cabinet inducting 15 ministers, 10 of them from the Congress, three from the Indian Union Muslim League and one each from Kerala Congress (Marxist) and RSP-B (Revolutionary Socialist Party).

Governor R L Bhatia administered oath of office and secrecy to the Ministers at the Raj Bhavan.

Chandy and four leaders of the UDF (United Democratic Front) constituents were sworn in on August 31, two days after A K Antony quit office.

Prominent Congress leaders who joined the cabinet were former Assembly speaker Vakkom Purushothaman, senior legislators Aryadan Muhammad, K K Ramachandran and K P Viswanathan.

The Congress nominees joining the cabinet for the first time were Thiruvanchur Radhakrishnan, A P Anil Kumar, Adoor Prakash, K C Venugopal, Dominique Presentation and N Sakthan.

The League had retained M K Muneer but chose E T Muhammad Basheer and Kutty Ahamed Kutty to replace Nalakath Soopy and Cherkalam Abdulla, who were members in the Antony cabinet.

Babu Divakaran of RSP-B was back in the cabinet.

Upset over rejection of his proposals in selection of ministers, senior Congress leader K Karunakaran, his son K Muraleedharan and several of their close followers stayed away from the swearing in ceremony.

Three ministers who got selection from the quota of Karunakaran camp, however, took oath.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, former Chief Minister A K Antony, Union Minister E Ahmed, KPCC president Thennala Balakrishna Pillai, Muslim League supremo Panakkad Syed Muhammadali Shihab Thangal and other leaders were present on the occasion.