M.M Mani likely to be chief whip

Thiruvananthapuram: Senior CPI(M) leader M.M Mani is likely to be the chief whip of the Pinarayi-led LDF government.

Sources say that the decision in this regard was taken at the CPI(M) state committee meeting, which was convened to finalise the list of ministers in the Pinarayi cabinet.

M.M Mani won in the Assembly election by 1,109 votes against Senapathy Venu of the Congress from Udumbanchola.

In 2012, Mani had courted controversy after his speech that CPI(M) in Idukki district in the 1980s drew up a list of rivals to be eliminated and had killed three of them.