Senior CPM leader M.M. Mani (70) on Tuesday sworn in as a cabinet minister at Kerala Raj Bhavan.
Mani, a school dropout and a plantation worker, will be given the electricity portfolio.
Mani is CPM's longest serving secretary of Idukki district, who is also known for his controversial statements.
Mani stepped down as party secretary in 2012, after a police case was registered against him for his involvement in three political killings in a meeting.
Mani was born in an ordinary family in Idukki and was educated up to 5th standard.
He was born as the seventh child of Madhavan and Janaki of Mundakkal house, Kidangoor, Kottayam. Young Mani arrived in the hilly areas of Idukki when his parents moved there in the 1950s.