Thiruvananthapuram, March 1 (IANS): The choice of Haseeb Drabu as a minister in Jammu and Kashmir Sunday has made many happy in Kerala, where he did his MPhil.

Drabu was a student at the Centre for Development Studies here in 1983, after which he joined a Phd programme at the institute in 1986.

His friend Pyarelal Raghavan, now a journalist in New Delhi, told IANS that they still keep in touch via Twitter.

Raghavan and Drabu were classmates at the CDS for around six years. They regrouped a few years later in Delhi when they worked for a media company.

Another former classmate of the minister, K.N. Harilal, a former Kerala Planning Board member and now a professor at the CDS, described Drabu as a jovial, happy go lucky person.

"He was very sharp, intelligent and was liked by our senior teachers (K.N. Raj, I.S. Gulati, Gita Sen and others)," said Harilal.

Drabu joined the Peoples Democratic Party and was elected to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly from Rajpora constituency.