Cliff House

Cliff House is the official residence of Chief Minister of Kerala, located at Nanthancode in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The Cliff House is part of Cliff House compound, which houses four other ministerial residences and is located within the state ministerial residential zone.However, the house is a statutory-only official residence, as Indian laws and protocols do not stipulate that ministers live in any particular residence; rather the law defines the minister's actual residence, whether owned privately or by government, as the official residence. Cliff House is preferred as official residence by most of Chief Ministers of Kerala.HistoryCliff House was constructed during the monarchy days of Travancore as the official residence of Diwan Peshkar (Secretary of the state) in charge of Devaswom affairs. Since the headquarters of Travancore Devaswom Office was commissioned at Nanthancode, it was decided to construct official residence of the Peshkar near to it. Post independence, the state PWD took over the house and surrounding land and refurnished as state Guest house. In 1956, it was reclassified as a ministerial residence.When Kerala was formed in 1957, the first Chief Minister, E. M. S. Namboodiripad chose the house as his official residence, citing its location advantage, instead of Ross House which were used by Chief Ministers of Travancore-Cochin.Most of the Chief Ministers, choose Cliff House as their official residence, primarily motivated by its location. The house rose into a cult status as a center of power, during tenure of K. Karunakaran as Chief Minister. Since 1979, the house has unbroken history of being official residence of Kerala Chief Minister