Government of Kerala
കേരള സർക്കാർKēraḷa Sarkkār

Seat of Government	Kerala Government Secretariat,Thiruvananthapuram
Website	kerala.gov.in
Legislative branch
Assembly	Kerala Legislative Assembly
Speaker	A. N. Shamseer,CPI(M)
Deputy Speaker	Chittayam Gopakumar, (CPI)
Members in Assembly	140
Meeting place	Niyamasabha Mandiram,Thiruvananthapuram
Executive branch
Governor (Head of the state)	Rajendra Arlekar
Chief Minister (Head of the government)	Pinarayi Vijayan,CPI(M)
Chief Secretary	Dr.A. Jayathilak,IAS
Headquarters	Kerala Government Secretariat,Thiruvananthapuram
Main organ	Kerala Council of Ministers
Departments	44
Judicial Branch
High Court	High Court of Kerala
Chief Justice	Nitin Madhukar Jamdar
Seat	Kochi

TheGovernment of Kerala (abbreviated asGoK), also known as theKerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing theIndianstate ofKerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who selects all the other ministers. TheKerala Council of Ministers, also known as theState Cabinet, is the highest executive decision-making body of the Government of Kerala. The Council of Ministers is collectively responsible to theKerala Legislative Assembly.^[1]

Ministers of the Kerala government areresponsible to theKerala Legislative Assembly; they make statements in the assembly and take questions from members of the assembly. The government isdependent on Kerala Legislative Assembly to makeprimary legislation. Legislative assembly elections are held every five years to elect a new assembly, unless there is a successfulvote of no confidence in the government or a two-thirds vote for asnap election in the assembly, in which case an election may be held sooner. After an election, the governor selects as chief minister the leader of the party most likely to command the confidence of the assembly, usually by possessing a majority of MLAs.

Under theIndian constitution,executive authority lies with the governor, although this authority is exercised only by, or on the advice of, the chief minister and the cabinet. In most cases, the cabinet members exercise power directly as leaders of the government departments, though some cabinet positions aresinecures to a greater or lesser degree.

The city ofThiruvananthapuram serves as the administrative headquarters of Kerala.

The governor is appointed by thePresident for a term of five years. The executive and legislative powers lie with theChief Minister and his council of ministers, who are appointed by the governor. The governors of thestates and territories of India have similar powers and functions at the state level as that of the president of India at the national level. Only Indian citizens above 35 years of age are eligible for appointment. Governors discharge allconstitutional functions, such as the appointment of the chief minister, sending reports to the president about failure of constitutional machinery in a state, or with respect to issues relating to the assent to abill passed by legislature, exercise or their own opinion.^[2]

Rajendra Arlekar is the present governor.

The governor enjoys many different types of powers:

• Executive powers related to administration, appointments, and removals
• Legislative powers related to lawmaking and the state legislature
• Discretionary powers to be carried out according to the discretion of the governor

Like in other Indian states, the executive arm of the state is responsible for the day-to-day management of the state. It consists of the governor, thechief minister and thecouncil of ministers (also known as cabinet). The chief minister and the council of ministers also have been appointed by the governor. The governor summons prorogues and dissolves the legislature. He can close thelegislative assembly on the recommendation of the chief minister.Judiciary has been separated from the executive in Kerala like other Indian states.^{[citation needed]}

The executive authority is headed by theChief Minister of Kerala, who is thede facto head of state and is vested with most of the executive powers; the Legislative Assembly's majority party leader is appointed to this position by the Governor. The present Chief Minister isPinarayi Vijayan, who took office on 25 May 2016. Generally, the winning party decides the chief minister. In many cases, the party focuses a chief ministerial candidate during the election.^{[citation needed]}

The Council of Ministers, which answers to the Legislative Assembly, has its members appointed by the Governor; the appointments receive input from the Chief Minister. They are collectively responsible to the legislative assembly of the State. Generally, the winning party and its chief minister chooses the ministers list and submit the list for the Governor's approval.^{[citation needed]}

The incumbent chief minister of Kerala is serving his second consecutive term, and was sworn into power on 20 May 2021. The oath-taking ceremony was held at theCentral Stadium. The Kerala Governor administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new members. In December 2023, the Kerala Cabinet underwent a reshuffle as part of a mutual agreement among member parties. The reshuffling is in accordance with a pre-election agreement within theLeft Democratic Front (LDF) coalition. Transport MinisterAntony Raju and Ports and Archaeology MinisterAhmed Devarkovil resigned, leading to the appointment ofK.B Ganesh Kumar as the new Minister for Transport andKadannappalli Ramachandran as the Minister for Registration and Archeology.^[4]

S.No	Name	Portrait	Constituency	Designation	Department	Party	State Car Number
Chief Minister
1.	Pinarayi Vijayan		Dharmadom	Chief Minister	Chief Minister Home Vigilance General Administration All India Services (IAS,IPS,IFS) Planning and Economic Affairs Science, Technology and Environment Pollution Control Scientific Institutes Personnel and Administrative Reforms Election Integration Information Technology Sainik Welfare Distress Relief State Hospitality Airports Metro Rail Inter - State River Waters Coastal Shipping and Inland Navigation Kerala State Inland Navigation Corporation Information and Public Relations Non- Resident Keralites’ Affairs Administration of Civil and Criminal Justice Fire and Rescue Services Prisons Printing and Stationery Environment Disaster Management Other departments not allocated to any Minister.	CPI(M)	1
Cabinet Ministers
2.	Adv. K. Rajan		Ollur	Minister for Revenue and Housing	Land Revenue Survey and Land Records Housing Land Reforms	CPI	2
3.	Roshy Augustine		Idukki	Minister for Water Resources	Water Resources Department Irrigation Command Area Development Authority Ground Water Department Water Supply and Sanitation	KCM	3
4.	K. Krishnankutty		Chittur	Minister for Electricity	Power Department Electricity ANERT	JD(S) Kerala	4
5.	A. K. Saseendran		Elathur	Minister for Forest and Wildlife	Forests Wild life Protection	NCP	5
6.	Kadannappalli Ramachandran		Kannur	Minister for Registration, Museum Archaeology & Archives	Registration Museums Archaeology Archives	Congress (S)	6
7.	K. B. Ganesh Kumar		Pathanapuram	Minister for Transport	Transport Department Motor Vehicles Department State Water Transport Department KSRTC	KC(B)	7
8.	V. Abdurahiman		Tanur	Minister for Sports, Wakf and Haj Pilgrimage, Minority welfare	Sports Wakf and Haj Pilgrimage Post and Telegraphs Railways Minority Welfare	NSC	21
9.	G. R. Anil		Nedumangad	Minister for Food and Civil Supplies	Food and Civil Supplies Consume Affairs Legal Metrology	CPI	19
10.	K. N. Balagopal		Kottarakkara	Minister for Finance	Finance Taxes National Savings. Stores Purchase. Commercial Taxes. Treasuries.Lotteries. State Audit. Kerala Financial Corporation. KSFE.State Insurance. Stamps And Stamp Duties.	CPI(M)	10
11.	R. Bindu		Irinjalakuda	Minister for Higher Education and Social Justice	Higher Education Department Collegiate Education Technical Education Universities (Except Agriculture, Veterinary, Fisheries, Medical and Digital Universities) Entrance Examinations National Cadet Corps Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) Social Justice Department	CPI(M)	18
12.	J. Chinchu Rani		Chadayamangalam	Minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development	Animal Husbandry Dairy Development, Milk Co-operatives Zoos Kerala Veterinary & Animal Sciences University	CPI	14
13.	M.B Rajesh		Thrithala	Minister for Local Self Governments, Rural Development and Excise	Local Self Governments Excise Kerala Institute of Local Administration Parliamentary affairs	CPI(M)	9
14.	P. A. Mohammed Riyas		Beypore	Minister for Public Works and Tourism	Public Works Department Tourism	CPI(M)	17
15.	P. Prasad		Cherthala	Minister for Agriculture	Agriculture Soil Survey & Soil Conservation Kerala Agriculture University Warehousing Corporation	CPI	13
16.	O. R. Kelu			Minister for Welfare of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes.	Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Development Department Backward Communities Development	CPI(M)	15
17.	P Rajeev		Kalamassery	Minister for Law, Industries and Coir	Law Industries (Including Industrial co-operatives) Commerce Mining and Geology Handlooms and Textiles Khadi and Village Industries Coir Cashew Industry Plantation Directorate	CPI(M)	11
18.	Saji Cherian		Chengannur	Minister for Fisheries, culture & youth affairs	Fisheries Department Cultural Affairs Youth affairs Harbour Engineering	CPI(M)	8
19.	V. Sivankutty		Nemom	Minister for General Education and Labour	General Education Literacy Movement Labour Employment and Training Skills, Rehabilitation Factories and Boilers Insurance Medical Service Industrial Tribunals Labour Courts	CPI(M)	16
20.	V. N. Vasavan		Ettumanoor	Minister for Co-operation	Co-operation Department Ports Department Devaswom	CPI(M)	12
21.	Veena George		Aranmula	Minister for Health and Woman and Child Development	Health Department Family Welfare Medical Education Medical University Indigenous Medicine AYUSH Department Drugs Control Women & Child Development Department	CPI(M)	20

Thelegislature comprises the governor and the legislative assembly, which is the highest political organ in the state. The governor has the power to summon the assembly or to close the same. All members of the legislative assembly are directly elected, normally once in every five years by the eligible voters who are above 18 years of age. The current assembly consists of 140 elected members and one member nominated by the governor from theAnglo-Indian community. The elected members select one of its own members as its chairman who is called thespeaker. The speaker is assisted by the deputy speaker who is also elected by the members. The conduct of a meeting in the house is the responsibility of the speaker.^{[citation needed]}

The main function of theassembly is to pass laws and rules. Every bill passed by the house has to be finally approved by the governor before it becomes applicable.^{[citation needed]}

The normal term of the legislative assembly is five years from the date appointed for its first meeting. But while a proclamation ofstate of emergency is in operation, the said period will be extended byParliament by Laws for a period not exceeding one year at a time.^[5]

The judiciary of Kerala functions as an independent branch of the state government, in accordance with theConstitution of India. The apex court in the state is theHigh Court of Kerala, which has jurisdiction over the state of Kerala and the Union Territory ofLakshadweep. It is located atKochi.

The High Court is headed by theChief Justice of Kerala, and comprises 35 permenent judges and 12 additional judges appointed by thePresident of India in consultation with theChief Justice of India and theGovernor of Kerala. Below the High Court, the judicial system includes district and subordinate courts, various special courts andtribunals for specific cases.^[6]

Kerala has 14district and sessions courts, each headed by a Principal District and Sessions Judge. All these judicial districts are located in district headquarters, except atManjeri,Thodupuzha, andThalassery.^[7]

Besides these, Kerala has 78 Additional District Courts (including 50 Additional Motor Accident Claims Tribunals). The state also has 40 Sub Courts and 16 Additional Sub Courts. At the lower level, there are 57Munsiff’s Courts, 24 Additional Munsiff’s Courts, and 20Magistrate’s Courts, making a total of 77 Munsiff and Magistrate Courts. In addition, Kerala has 28Family Courts, 27 Motor Accident Claims Tribunals, one Waqf Tribunal, 22 Fast Track Courts, and 30Gram Nyayalayas.^[8]

Constitutional office holders

Post	Incumbent	Portrait	Assumed office
Governor of Kerala	Rajendra Arlekar		2 January 2025 (1 year, 1 month and 12 days)
Chief Minister of Kerala	Pinarayi Vijayan		25 May 2016 (9 years, 8 months and 20 days)
Speaker of the Legislative Assembly	A. N. Shamseer		12 September 2022
Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly	Chittayam Gopakumar		1 June 2021
Leader of the Opposition	V. D. Satheesan		22 May 2021
Chief Justice of Kerala	Nitin Madhukar Jamdar		26 September 2024
Advocate General of Kerala	Gopalakrishna Kurup K.[9]		May 2021

Statutory and Quasi-Judicial Authorities

Office	Incumbent	Photo	Assumed office
Chairperson,Kerala State Human Rights Commission^	Justice Alexander Thomas (Retd.)		2021
Lok Ayukta,Kerala Lok Ayukta^	Justice N. Anil Kumar		2023
State Election Commissioner,Kerala State Election Commission	A. Shajahan		January 2022
Chairman,Kerala Public Service Commission	M. R. Baiju		2023
Chairperson,Kerala State Commission for Women	P. Sathidevi		October 2021
Chairperson, Kerala State Commission for SC/ST	Justice G. Sasidharan		2023

Key Administrative Officials

Office	Incumbent	Photo	Assumed office
Chief Secretary, Government of Kerala	A. Jayathilak,IAS[10]		May 2025
Director General of Police & State Police Chief,Kerala	Ravada A. Chandrasekhar,IPS		June 2025

For administrative convenience, Kerala State has been divided into 14 districts, 27 revenue divisions, 77 taluks, 152 CD blocks, and 1666 revenue villages. For local governance, the state has 941 gram panchayats, 152 block panchayats, 14 district panchayats, 6corporations, and 87municipalities.^[22]

The business of the state government is transacted through the various secretariat departments based on the rules of business. Each department is headed by a minister, who functions as the political head, while the secretary serves as the administrative head of the department. Each department consists of secretary to the government, who is the official head of the department and such other special/additional secretaries, deputy secretaries, under secretaries, junior secretaries, officers, and staffs subordinate to him/her. TheChief secretary superintending control over the whole secretariat and staff attached to the ministers. TheChief Secretary of Kerala is also the administrative head of the government.^{[citation needed]} Secretaries in charge of departments are generally officers of theIndian Administrative Service (IAS), holding the rank of Secretary,Principal Secretary, orAdditional Chief Secretary (ACS).

The department is further divided into sections, each of which is under the charge of a section officer. Apart from these sections, dealing with the subjects allotted to them, there are other offices sections, assigned with specific duties. When there is more than one secretary in a department, there shall be a clear separation of work.^[23]

In addition to the Secretariat, the Government operates variousline departments—commonly known asDirectorates orCommissionerates—which function under the administrative control of their respective Secretariat Departments. These departments are responsible for policy implementation and service delivery and are headed by designated officers such as Directors, Commissioners, or Directors General, who may belong toIAS,IPS,IFS, or technical/specialist cadres.^[24]

Besides government departments, the state performs its functions through several allied institutions, including autonomous bodies, welfare fund boards, development authorities, commissions,public sector undertakings, universities, and cultural institutions.

At present there are 47 Secretariat Departments as below:^[25]

Symbols of Kerala

Emblem of Kerala
Language	Malayalam
Bird	Great Indian hornbill
Fish	Pearlspot (karimeen)
Flower	Cassia fistula (Indian laburnum)
Fruit	Jackfruit
Mammal	Elephant
Tree	Coconut
Costume	Mundum neriyathum (women) Mundu (men)

TheKerala State Emblem is a derivative version of the royal coat of arms of theKingdom of Travancore. The state emblem symbolises two elephants guarding theImperialShanku, or conch, in its imperial crest. This crest was the insignia of LordSree Padmanabha (a form of Lord Vishnu) - the national deity of Travancore.Shanku was considered one of the common emblems of a majority of the Kerala feudal kingdoms. The Kingdom of Cochin and Zamorin's Malabar also had conch as state emblems. When the kingdoms ofCochin and Travancore merged in 1949, for a brief period, the crest carried a wheel orchakra in the centre withShanku on top of it. With the accession ofMalabar into Travancore-Cochin, the state of Kerala was formed in 1957. During this time, the royal coat of arms of the Travancore kingdom was modified by placing the "Lion Capital of Ashoka" on top of the imperial conch. The Travancore Royal Family uses the erstwhile Royal Coat of Arms of Travancore today, whereas Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple of Trivandrum uses only the imperial conch crest as its coat of arms.^{[citation needed]}

The state animal of Kerala is theelephant, and the governmentemblem has two elephants in it. The state bird is thegreat Indian hornbill (ML:മലമ്പുഴക്കി വേഴാമ്പല്‍). The state flower is thegolden shower (ML:കണിക്കൊന്ന), and the state tree is thecoconut.^[27] The state fish is thepearlspot or karimeen (കരിമീന്‍‌).

Elections to the state assembly and local bodies are held every five years. Elections are generally held forParliament,State assembly and regionalmunicipalities and ruralpanchayats. Due to the large numbers of eligiblevoters, over 21million, elections are usually held on several dates. Like all other Indian states, the minimum age of registration of a voter is 18 years.^[28]

Kerala has a unique position in India as one of the most politicised states. It has the nation's largest politically aware population, which actively participates in state politics.^{[citation needed]}

Politics in Kerala has been dominated by two political fronts, theCommunist Party of India (Marxist)-ledLeft Democratic Front (LDF) and theIndian National Congress-ledUnited Democratic Front (UDF), since the late 1970s. These two coalitions have alternated in power since 1982, although this pattern was broken in 2021. According to the2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election, the LDF has a majority in thestate assembly (99/140).^{[citation needed]}

The political alliance has strongly stabilised and, with rare exceptions, most of the coalition partners maintain loyalty to the alliance. As a result of this, power has alternated between these two fronts since 1979.^{[citation needed]}

In terms of individual parties, the state has strong leanings towardssocialism and thusCommunist parties have made strong inroads in Kerala. The Malabar region, particularlyKannur andPalakkad, are considered the heartland of the Communist parties. TheKollam andAlapuzha districts, where trade unions have a strong presence, are generally inclined to Left parties, though several times the UDF has won. TheCPI(M) ledLDF did a clean sweep of 11–0 overUDF andNDA inKollam district during2016 Local body election.^[29] The largest Communist party is theCPIM and the second largest is theCPI.^{[citation needed]}

TheIndian National Congress, which leads the UDF coalition, has had a very strong presence in Kerala since pre-Independence days. The Congress party has great popularity in theThrissur,Ernakulam,Kottayam,Pathanamthitta andThiruvananthapuram regions, whereas it has a strong influence in some parts ofIdukki regions.^{[citation needed]}

TheBharatiya Janata Party (the Party that currently leads theGovernment of India) is also active in Kerala, but is not part of either coalition. It has only one elected Parliament member fromThrissur, and has lost its one Legislative Assembly member in the2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election and selected members in all the Corporations, several Municipal Councils and a large number of Local Panchayats. The party enjoys popularity in the districts ofThiruvananthapuram andKasaragod.^{[citation needed]}

Other popular regional parties are:

• TheKerala Congress, which has more than four denominations after breaking away from the original party. It has strong influence among settlement populations in hilly regions. The various Kerala Congress denominations are primarily patronized by the Syrian Christian community andNair populations, mostly in Central Travancore areas likeKottayam,Idukki andPathanamthitta. Today, most of Kerala Congress parties are with the UDF.^{[citation needed]}
• TheIndian Union Muslim League is a powerful pro-Muslim community-oriented party, which was started as theMuslim League prior to Independence, yet decided to transfer their allegiance to the Indian Union after Independence, when the original Muslim League went to Pakistan. The IUML-Kerala unit is the only Muslim League group to declare its allegiance and loyalty to India and hence become a state party in post-Independence India. The party has strongholds mostly in Muslim-dominated districts likeKozhikode,Malappuram andKasargod. They form the second largest party within the UDF.^{[citation needed]}
• Socialist groups, consisting of several small fragmented parties like theNCP (SP),SJD-S,JDS, andCongress-S, are mainly centre-left socialist parties having very limited influence in a few pocket areas. Most of the socialist groups are with the LDF, though in a few instances, some of them changed their loyalties to the UDF.^{[citation needed]}
• Communist parties consist of various groups which have broken away from theCPIM. They are mostly centre-left parties, though a few are extreme-left. While a few centre-left parties like theRSP have joined with the UDF, those that broke away from the CPIM, like theCMP andJSS, led by erstwhile CPIM veterans who were expelled from CPIM, have joined with the UDF.^{[citation needed]}
• TheBharath Dharma Jana Sena or BDJS is a new political party formed in 2015 led by Thushar Vellapally. The party's primary vote base is among Ezhava and Thiyya community. It is politically and ideologically aligned towards the BJP and is a part ofNational Democratic Alliance.^{[citation needed]}

Kerala was declared as the first complete digitally administered state of India on 27 February 2016.^[30] TheIndia Corruption Survey 2019 byTransparency International declared Kerala the least-corrupt state in India.^[31] The state topped in the country to achieve theSustainable Development Goals according to the annual report ofNITI Aayog published in 2019.^[32] The Public Affairs Index-2020 released by the Public Affairs Centre, India, designated Kerala as the best governed Indian state.^[33]

• Chief Ministers, Ministers, and Leaders of Opposition of Kerala(PDF),Thiruvananthapuram: Secratriat ofKerala Legislature, 2018
• Chandran, VP (2018).Mathrubhumi Yearbook Plus - 2019 (Malayalam ed.). Kozhikode: P. V. Chandran, Managing Editor, Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Company Limited, Kozhikode.
• Menon, A. Sreedhara (2007).A Survey of Kerala History. DC Books.ISBN 9788126415786.

• Official website

• Government of Kerala

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