Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren expanded his cabinet on February 16, with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren’s son taking oath along with seven others.
Jharkhand Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan administered the oath at Raj Bhavan. Of the eight MLAs sworn in as Cabinet Ministers, five are from the JMM and three from Congress.
of Congress, Mithilesh Thakur, Deepak Barua, Basant Soren, Hafizul Hasan and Bebi Devi of JMM took the oath.
No changes were made by the Congress with Rameshwar Uranv, Banna Gupta, and Badal Patralekh retaining their Ministerial berths, while JMM made two changes. In the place of Hemant Soren,who is currently in jail in connection with money laundering case, his younger brother and MLA from Dumka Assembly seat Basant Soren was given the Ministerial post, whereas in place of Joba Manjhi, who represents Manoharpur Assembly constituency, Deepak Barua was given the chance to become the Minister.
Mr. Basant became a member of Jharkhand Assembly after winning the Dumka by-election held in 2020. He had defeated BJP candidate and former Minister Lewis Marandi. The seat had become vacant due to the resignation of Hemant Soren. In the 2021 Assembly elections, Hemant Soren had contested and won both Dumka and Barhet Assembly seat. Later he vacated the Dumka seat which necessitated the by-election.
Mr. Basant is the sixth member of the Soren family to enter politics. He had contested the Rajya Sabha elections in 2016, but had to face defeat. Following this, he continued working at the party’s organizational level.
Before the cabinet expansion there was some reported discontentment among the Congress MLAs on the issue of the same leaders retaining their posts as Ministers. However, Jharkhand Congress Chief Rajesh Thakur and Jharkhand Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir settled the issue.
Earlier this month on February 2, Alamgir Alam of Congress and Satyanand Bhokta of RJD had taken oath, along with CM Champai Soren.
Sources in the JMM also said that further expansion of the cabinet will take place after a few days.
