Jharkhand Cabinet to be sworn in today; here are Soren’s picks
Ranchi: The council of ministers of the Hemant Soren-led government in Jharkhand will take oath on Thursday, officials said.
Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar will administer the oath to ministers at the Raj Bhavan here.
According to the Raj Bhavan, the swearing-in ceremony will begin with Stephen Marandi, the Protem Speaker, taking the oath around noon.
Marandi, a senior JMM MLA, was appointed Protem Speaker of the assembly after Soren took oath as the chief minister on November 28.
Following Marandi’s oath, several MLAs will be sworn in as ministers.
Congress leader Rajesh Thakur confirmed that the list has been finalised and would be sent to the governor by Soren.
“Everything has been finalised. The list will be sent to the governor by the CM. It is an alliance government. We have fought together. People elected us and we will work together for the development of the state,” he said.
Speculations are rife about the ministerial appointments with the Congress expecting to receive four berths.
Congress sources said party MLAs Irfan Ansari, Deepika Pandey Singh, Radhakrishna Kishore and Shilpy Neha Tirkey are likely to take oath as ministers.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which emerged as a surprise element in the assembly elections with its candidates winning in four of the six seats where the party contested, will get one ministerial berth, the sources said.
In 2019, the RJD managed to win only the Chatra seat where Satyanand Bhokta had won.
The rest of the berths will be with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
The JMM contested 43 seats and won 34, the highest-ever constituencies bagged by the party in assembly polls. The Congress got 16, RJD 4 and the CPI (ML) Liberation secured 2 in the INDIA bloc.
The BJP contested 68 seats, won 21 and emerged as the second-largest party in the assembly.
The JMM-led alliance, last month, stormed to power in Jharkhand for the second time in a row, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-headed NDA managed 24.
After Soren took oath on November 28, it was also decided that an assembly session would be held from December 9-12.
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