Ranchi, Dec 5 (IANS): Six days after Hemant Soren took oath as Jharkhand Chief Minister for a record fourth time, he expanded his cabinet on Thursday with 11 ministers taking the oath of office and secrecy.
The ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan at 12.50 p.m., where Governor Santosh Gangwar administered the oath of office.
The newly sworn-in ministers include Deepak Birua, Ramdas Soren, Hafizul Hasan, Sudivya Kumar Sonu, Yogendra Mahato, and Chamra Linda from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Deepika Pandey Singh, Irfan Ansari, Radha Krishna Kishore, and Shilpi Neha Tirkey from the Congress, and Sanjay Prasad Yadav from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Earlier, senior JMM MLA Stephen Marandi was sworn in as the Protem Speaker of the Assembly.
The event at Ashok Udyan, Raj Bhavan, was attended by prominent leaders, including Chief Minister Soren, Congress General Secretary and Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir, and RJD national General Secretary Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav.
The newly formed cabinet includes six new and five old faces. New entrants include Sonu, Linda, Mahato of the JMM, Kishore and Tirkey from the Congress, and Sanjay Yadav of the RJD.
This time, the cabinet has achieved notable gender representation, with eight women from the ruling coalition winning the Assembly elections, and two of them securing cabinet positions.
The government has ensured representation from all five divisions of Jharkhand – four ministers from Santhal Pargana, two each from Kolhan, South Chotanagpur, and North Chotanagpur regions, and one Minister from Palamu division.
The cabinet also reflects Jharkhand’s socio-political diversity, with the representation of four MLAs from Scheduled Tribes, one MLA from Scheduled Castes, three MLAs from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), two MLAs from minority communities, and one from upper castes.
Chief Minister Soren had earlier taken the oath of office alone on November 28. His four-party alliance secured a resounding victory in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, winning 56 seats in the elections held on November 13 and November 20 with his JMM winning 34 seats, the Congress 16 seats, the RJD four, and the CPI-ML two seats. The CPI-ML decided to stay away from the cabinet.
Seven ministers from Soren’s previous government did not find a place in this cabinet. Among them, Rameshwar Oraon, the oldest minister in the previous term, was excluded. Baby Devi, Hafizul Hasan, Mithilesh Thakur, and Vaidyanath Ram lost their seats, while Satyanand Bhokta didn’t contest. Champai Soren had already joined the BJP before the elections.
The distribution of portfolios among the new ministers is expected by Thursday evening.