SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, February 16: Newly appointed Chief Minister Champai Soren expanded his cabinet today amidst discord within the Congress.
He has retained all the ministers, except Joba Manjhi, who were in the Hemant Soren cabinet and added two new faces.
Basant Soren among two new faces
Basant Soren, the youngest son of JMM chief Shibu Soren, is among two new faces in the Champai Soren cabinet. The other is Chaibasa MLA Deepak Birua. Latehar legislator Baijanth Ram, who was also supposed to take oath, could not make it to the cabinet in the last minute following protests from the Congress. Birua has replaced Joba Manjhi from the Kolhan region.
Governor CP Radhakrishnan
Governor CP Radhakrishnan administered them the oath of office at Raj Bhawan.
Discord in Congress
The Congress MLAs, notably Deepika Pandey Singh, Anoop Singh and Rajesh Kacchap, tried to convince the party leadership to replace the ministers with the new faces in the Champai Soren cabinet. They were also eyeing the 12th berth, which lay vacant in the Hemant Soren cabinet.
Ahead of the cabinet expansion, around 10 Congress MLAs locked themselves in a room in the Circuit House in protest.
Neither the Congress nor the JMM leadership paid heed to their pleas.
However, Congress Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir persuaded them to attend the oath ceremony.
All the MLAs from the JMM and the Congress quota who were members of the Hemant Soren cabinet, except Joba Manjhi (JMM), have been retained.
In all, five from the JMM quota, including Basant Soren, Deepak Birua, Mithilesh Thakur, Hafizul Hassan and Baby Devi, and three from the Congress fold-Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh took oath as ministers.
Champai Soren took oath on Feb 2
Notably, Champai Soren took oath as chief minister along with Alamgir Alam (Congress) and Satyanand Bhokta (RJD) on February 2, after Hemant Soren resigned after the ED arrested him in the land scam.
Sita Soren
According to sources, Sita Soren, the sister-in-law of Hemant Soren and a strong contender for a ministerial berth, has been placated with an arrangement in the Soren family. She has been offered the opportunity to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Dumka. Her daughter will contest the assembly election from Jama, the seat represented currently by Sita, the widow of Shibu Soren’s eldest son, Durga Soren.
Maximum of 12 ministers can take an oath
According to constitutional provisions, Jharkhand can have a maximum of 12 ministers, including the Chief Minister.
JMM alliance
The JMM alliance has 47 MLAs — JMM 29, Congress 17 and RJD 1 in the Jharkhand assembly. The BJP has 26 members, and the AJSU Party has three. The NCP and CPI (ML) have one lawmaker, apart from two independents. There is also one nominated member.
