From SFI activist and  football star to Kerala's new Education Minister: The rise of V Sivankutty 

In his first term as a minister, veteran CPM leader and MLA representing Nemom, V Sivankutty will serve as Kerala's Minister of General Education. The portfolios of the new ministers, who will take oath on Thursday, were announced on Wednesday. He will also handle the Labour Department.

This is Sivankutty's third term as an MLA. This year, his win was considered historic as he defeated veteran BJP politician and former Mizoram Governor Kummanam Rajasekharan from Nemom. Last time around, Sivankutty lost the polls from the same constituency against O Rajagopal, the only BJP candidate to have won an assembly election in Kerala. His other opponent this year was Congress MP K Muraleedharan.
 

Someone who hails from a family of Communists, the 66-year-old minister began his career through SFI, the students' wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), when he was a student of Sree Narayana College, Thiruvananthapuram. He later went on to study law from the Kerala Law Academy and graduated with a BA LLB degree. Fun fact, during his student life, he was a noted football player.

After his student life, Sivankutty served as a member of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions. He was then the President of Ulloor Panchayat and the Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation.