Expansion of Jharkhand Cabinet: Hemant Soren's brother and seven others sworn in as ministers in Champai Soren-led government
Basant is the younger brother of former Prime Minister Hemant Soren, who is in judicial custody in a money laundering case related to an alleged land scam.
Jharkhand News: Basant Soren, younger son of JMM supremo Shibu Soren, and seven others were sworn in as ministers in the Champai Soren-led Jharkhand government on Friday.
Basant is also the younger brother of former Prime Minister Hemant Soren, who is in judicial custody in a money laundering case related to an alleged land scam.
Besides him, the new face in the 11-member cabinet is Chaibasa MLA Deepak Birua of JMM.
Basant Soren was elected as MLA from Dumka constituency after defeating the BJP's Louis Marandi by a margin of 6,842 votes in a by-poll in November 2020.
Birua won the Chaibasa seat by defeating BJP's JB Tubid by over 26,000 votes in the 2019 Assembly elections.
Those who will retain their ministerial positions include Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh of Congress, besides Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, Hafizul Hasan and Bebi Devi of JMM.
Governor CP Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers.
The oath-taking took place at the Birsa Mandap of Raj Bhavan in the presence of senior leaders of the JMM-led alliance and other government officials.
“The wallets are being distributed today. We will continue the work of developing Jharkhand after assigning responsibilities to each minister,” the CM said.
“The party has given me a big responsibility and I hope to fulfill it,” Basant Soren said.
Birua also expressed happiness over his induction into the cabinet. “I will work with vigor and zeal for the welfare of the state,” he asserted.
JMM Minister Hafizul Hasan added: “This is the oath of sorrow we took today as our leader (Hemant Soren) is in jail. We must intensify our fight for justice.”
Madhupur lawmaker Hasan served as minister of tourism, arts, culture and sports in the previous government.
Meanwhile, JMM's Latehar MLA Baidyanath Ram, whose name was initially included in the list of ministers, was reportedly dropped at the eleventh hour.
A close aide of Ram said his name was withdrawn after a meeting with the chief minister.
“The CM has assured him that he will be considered in future,” the aide said.
Ram could not be reached for comment.
Champai Soren, however, said talks over the twelfth minister were “still ongoing”.
Rameshwar Oraon, who was reinducted into the cabinet, previously held the finance portfolio during Hemant Soren's government.
Banna Gupta, a Congress legislator from Jamshedpur West constituency, was health minister in the previous JMM government, while Badal Patralekh held the agriculture portfolio.
Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, a JMM lawmaker from Garhwa, was previously minister of drinking water and sanitation, and Bebi Devi was minister of excise.
She contested the 2023 Dumri elections after the death of her husband Jagannath Mahto.
On February 2, Champai Soren, 67, was sworn in as the state's 12th chief minister, while senior Congress leader Alamgir Alam and RJD leader Satyanand Bhokta took oath as ministers.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31, soon after he resigned as chief minister.
The JMM-led alliance in the state has 47 MLAs JMM-29, Congress-17 and one of the RJDs in the 81-member assembly.
The BJP has 26 legislators and the AJSU party has three. The NCP and the CPI (ML) have one legislature each, apart from two independents. There is also a nominated member.
(Only the headline was reworked by India.com staff. The copy is from an agency feed)