Senior Congress leader Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan was elected as the Speaker of the 16th Kerala Legislative Assembly on Friday, securing 101 votes in the 140-seat House. The Pro Tem Speaker, G Sudhakaran, did not cast a ballot, and following the election, his interim role came to an end. Sudhakaran, a former CPI(M) leader, had won the Ambalapuzha constituency as an independent candidate with the backing of the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), which holds a comfortable majority of 102 members in the Assembly.
The election was a three-way contest, with the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) fielding AC Moideen and the Bharatiya Janata Party nominating BB Gopakumar. Moideen secured 35 votes and Gopakumar received three, exactly reflecting the respective strength of the LDF and the BJP in the House. Announcing the results, Sudhakaran praised Radhakrishnan as a veteran politician and former Home Minister whose vast parliamentary experience and accessible nature would serve the House well.
Once the results were formalised, MLAs across party lines congratulated the new Speaker. Chief Minister VD Satheesan and Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan escorted Radhakrishnan to the Speaker's chair. Satheesan lauded Radhakrishnan's three decades of legislative experience, tracing his journey from his days as a student leader to his management of various key government departments. Vijayan also offered his congratulations, expressing hope that the new Speaker would act as an impartial guardian of the House. He emphasised that the Speaker represents the collective voice of the Assembly only by respecting the voice of the opposition, promising full cooperation from his benches in maintaining democratic traditions.
Further congratulations were offered by Industries Minister PK Kunhalikutty, CPI leader K Rajan, and BJP MLA Rajeev Chandrasekhar. Speaking on behalf of the three-member BJP-NDA coalition, Chandrasekhar requested that all members, regardless of party size, be given a fair opportunity to raise the grievances of their constituents, pledging his party's full support to the Chair.
The 76-year-old Radhakrishnan, a native of Kottayam district, began his political career in the 1960s with the All Kerala Balajanasakhyam before rising through the ranks of the Kerala Students Union and the Youth Congress. He later served as the general secretary of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee for several years. First elected to the Assembly in 1991 from Adoor, which he represented until 2006, he has represented the Kottayam constituency since 2011. Over his long career, Radhakrishnan has held 17 ministerial portfolios in various UDF administrations, including Home, Revenue, Forests, Health, and Transport. While the UDF had announced his candidacy earlier in the week, the opposition fronts had finalised their nominees on Thursday.
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