Thiruvananthapuram: Sitting among the audience at the swearing-in ceremony at Central Stadium, Mohanlal must have silently saluted the twists of time. Once the gunman of former minister Ramesh Chennithala, he proudly watched his son M Liju take oath as a minister. His eyes welled up with emotion.

Mohanlal had served alongside Chennithala in 1986, when the latter was the Rural Development Minister in the Karunakaran cabinet. At that time, Liju was a student at St Thomas School. Swearing-in ceremonies and ministerial offices were nothing new to Mohanlal, who had closely witnessed the hectic routines and responsibilities of ministers. Now, he will watch his son’s ministerial journey from close quarters.

“While studying in college, he was once brutally attacked by members of an opposing political party and was hospitalised with a head injury. At that time, I advised him to give up politics. But soon after, he became a member of the university senate and then a full-time politician,” Mohanlal recalled on the day of swearing-in.

Coming from a Congress family for generations, Liju too chose the same political path. After a series of electoral defeats, he finally registered a resounding victory from Kayamkulam and entered the cabinet.

Present at the ceremony as Liju assumed office were his father Mohanlal, mother Chandrika, wife Ambili, and daughter Gagana Liju.