JMM leader Hemant Soren on Sunday met Jharkhand governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar and staked claim to form the government, soon after leaders of the INDIA bloc in the state unanimously elected him as the legislature party leader.
Hemant tendered his resignation as the chief minister and handed over a list of 56 supporting MLAs to Gangwar, who invited him to form the government.
Hemant’s swearing-in as the 14th chief minister will be held at Morabadi Ground in Ranchi on November 28.
Speaking to reporters outside the Raj Bhavan, Hemant said the governor asked him to officiate as the acting chief minister in the interim.
“Today we have started the procedure to form the INDIA bloc government. We have staked a claim to form a government in front of the governor. I also tendered my resignation to him. The oath ceremony will take place on November 28,” he said.
AICC in-charge for Jharkhand, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, who was present during the meeting with Gangwar said there was no pressure from the Congress to appoint a deputy chief minister from among the party MLAs.
The INDIA bloc won 56 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, with the JMM bagging 34. Among the allies, the Congress won 16 seats, the RJD four and the CPIML two.
The BJP-led NDA won only 24 seats in Jharkhand. The BJP secured 21 seats while its allies — Ajsu, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and JDU —won one seat each.
The JMM-led coalition is likely to distribute cabinet berths based on last term’s formula.
Sources in the Congress and the JMM confirmed that cabinet berth allocations would be decided by Hemant but the numbers were “most likely to be that of last term with one ministerial berth for every five MLAs”.
“Based on the old formula, the JMM will have six ministerial berths while the Congress will have four and the RJD one. So far, the CPIML, which has joined the coalition in this election, has not requested a ministerial berth and a slot will be allotted based on their request,” said a JMM MLA who was part of the meeting of the ruling coalition held in Ranchi on Sunday.
CPIML general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya told The Telegraph that they would attend the swearing-in ceremony and take a decision on being part of the new government a day later.
“We have received the invitation for the swearing-in ceremony of the Hemant Soren-led government to be held at Ranchi on November 28. Thereafter, our state standing committee meeting will be held on November 29 in which a final decision will be taken on whether we will join the government or support itfrom outside,” Bhattacharya said.
Nirsa CPIML MLA Arup Chatterjee said they had not requested a ministerial berth till now.
“It will depend on the decision taken by our party standing committee meeting on November 29,” Chatterjee added.
The CPIML, which contested from four seats, won Nirsa and Sindri.
However, it faced “friendly competition” from the JMM’s Nizamuddin Ansari in the Dhanwar seat, which helped the BJP’s Babulal Marandi to retain the seat.
The RJD’s Jharkhand unit spokesperson Manoj Kumar said they would be part of the government but had not demanded any ministerial berth.