Thiruvananthapuram: M B Rajesh, who stepped down as Speaker of the Kerala Assembly, took oath as minister in the Pinarayi Vijayan cabinet on Tuesday.

The ceremony was held at 11 am at the Rajbhavan auditorium. Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Chief Secretary V P Joy, among others.

Rajesh replaces M V Govindan, who was the minister for excise and local self-government departments. A final decision on the departments to be handled by Rajesh will be taken after his oath when the files to this end are handed over to the Rajbhavan.

The CPM Secretariat meeting decided to hand over the same departments to Rajesh that were handled by Govindan, who resigned after being elected as the party state secretary.

Speaker election on Sep 12

The Assembly will convene at 10 am on September 12 to elect the new Speaker. The meeting will be held as a continuance of the last session. Although the legislative session concluded on September 1, the Cabinet has not decided to prorogue the session.

If the Opposition decides not to field any candidate against LDF nominee A N Shamseer, the election procedure will be over in an hour. If it fields a candidate, the election will be held by secret ballot. The session will conclude after the new Speaker addresses the Assembly.