Ranchi: Jharkhand cabinet ministers will be sworn in on Thursday to form the Hemant Soren-led government. A total of 10 ministers are likely to be sworn including four from Congress.
Sources said Congress MLAs Deepika Pandey Singh, Irfan Ansari, Shilpi Neha Tirki and Radhakrishna Kishore will take oath which Governor Santosh Gangwar will administer at the Raj Bhawan in Ranchi.
As per Raj Bhavan, the ceremony will commence around noon with Stephen Marandi, the Protem Speaker, taking the oath. Marandi, a senior JMM MLA, was appointed Protem Speaker during the cabinet’s first meeting on 28 November.
He will preside over the proceedings until a regular Speaker is elected. After Marandi’s oath, the ministers will be sworn in, taking oaths of office and secrecy. The cabinet has also decided to convene an assembly session from 9 to 12 December.
Jharkhand cabinet ministers
The Congress is expected to secure four ministerial positions, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which surprised many by winning four of the six seats it contested, will receive one ministerial berth.
In 2019, the RJD had managed to win only the Chatra seat, represented by Satyanand Bhokta. The remaining ministerial positions will be held by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM).
JMM contested 43 seats and achieved its best-ever performance, winning 34. The Congress secured 16 seats, the RJD 4, and the CPI (ML) 2, as part of the INDIA bloc. Meanwhile, the BJP contested 68 seats, winning 21, making it the second-largest party.
Hemant Soren was sworn in as the 14th Chief Minister of Jharkhand on 28 November. This marks the fourth term for the 49-year-old JMM leader. Last month, the JMM-led alliance returned to power in Jharkhand for the second consecutive time, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-led NDA secured 24.
