SUMAN K SHRIVASTAVA
Ranchi, February 7: Chief Minister Champai Soren has deferred his plan to expand the cabinet on February 8.
A Raj Bhawan communique said the programme was deferred at the chief minister’s request. “Now, the cabinet expansion will take place on February 16,” it added.
Champai Soren took an oath as chief minister on February 2 along with Alamgir Alam (Congress) and Satyanand Bhokta (RJD) after Hemant Soren resigned following his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 31 in the land scam.
Hemant Soren’s remand extension
Sources said the ED court’s order today to extend the remand of Hemant Soren for five days more was one of the reasons behind deferring the cabinet expansion plan.
Sources said that the new chief minister is facing an uphill task in expanding his cabinet, given the ambitions of several MLAs in the JMM and the Congress, who believed they were more deserving yet side-lined by Hemant Soren.
The new hopefuls, particularly the Congress MLAs, say that their ministers in the Hemant Soren cabinet neither performed well nor took care of the party workers.
JMM waits for Congress list
A senior JMM leader, however, said the party is ready with its list but waiting for the list of ministers from the Congress quota. “There will be a member of the Shibu Soren family in the new government,” he added.
Besides, senior JMM MLAs, including Stephen Marandi and Nalin Soren, who felt side-lined by Hemant Soren, are eyeing a cabinet berth this time.
The Congress leadership is also facing a challenge to accommodate new claimants like Deepika Pandey and Amba Prasad in the new cabinet.
Notably, there were five ministers from the JMM quota (Mithilesh Thakur, Baby Mahto, Joba Manjhi, Hafizul Hassan and Champai Soren); four from the Congress (Rameshwar Oraon, Alamgir Alam, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh) and one from the RJD (Satyanand Bhokta) fold, besides Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the previous cabinet.
