Thiruvananthapuram/Kannur, April 15 : Hours after the CPI-M's newly appointed General Secretary M.A. Baby called for more young leaders to be appointed in party posts, CM Pinarayi Vijayan's private secretary K.K. Ragesh was on Tuesday named as the new Kannur district Secretary.

The appointment was made at a high-level party meeting where Vijayan was also present.

Ragesh, 54, is also a former Rajya Sabha member (2015-21).

Consequent to his new appointment, he will now shift base from the state capital to his home town in Kannur.

Kannur distirct in north Kerala has the distinction of being the district with the maximum number of CPI-M card holders in the country.

Of the one million CPI-M party members, half are from Kerala.

Ragesh, for the past nearly two decades, has been close to Vijayan, who also hails from Kannur.

In the Kerala unit of the CPI-M, most of the senior party leaders, including Vijayan, state party Secretary M.V.Govindan, former ministers K.K. Shailaja, and E.P. Jayarajan, besides newly-appointed CPI-M state Secretariat member M.V. Jayarajan, who was the Kannur party chief so far, all hail from Kannur.

However, like most of the high-ranking officials attached to Vijayan's office, who are facing allegations of one sort or the other, Ragesh also is involved in a controversy - the appointment of his wife Priya Varghese as an Associate Professor at the Kannur University.

Allegations that her appointment violated UGC norms are now before the Supreme Court, with a verdict awaited.

At the height of the controversy which raged both inside and outside the Kerala Assembly, Vijayan, however, protected his aide from the Opposition onslaught.

With Ragesh now being appointed to the powerful post of the Kannur district Secretary, all eyes will be on P.Jayarajan, who is often regarded as the most popular leader in the distirct.

Also, another crucial appointment, which is keenly watched, is who will replace him as Vijayan's new private secretary, with the local body polls scheduled later this year and the state going to elect a new government the next year.

/IANS