Chief minister Hemant Soren secured a majority in the Jharkhand Assembly around Monday noon and by evening had 11 of his cabinet ministers, including former chief minister Champai Soren, take oath at the
Raj Bhavan.

The Hemant-led coalition government (JMM-Congress-RJD) won the trust vote in the Jharkhand Assembly with 45 MLAs voting in favour and none against the motion after the entire Opposition (BJP-AJSU and Independents) walked out without participating in the voting.

Champai, who had to resign last week paving the way for Hemant to be sworn in as the thirteenth chief minister of Jharkhand, has been kept in the number two position and was the first to take oath around 4pm. He was allocated water resources and higher and technical education departments in the portfolios announced by the government at 7.40pm on Monday.

A Hemant aide and Ranchi-based JMM central committee member said: “Champai Soren will be next to the chief minister. Hemant had a chat with Champai da (as the veteran Shibu Soren loyalist is known among JMM leaders) and there would be no post of deputy chief minister.

“However, he would be given key portfolios and would be the next man after Hemant. Champai da taking oath has also sent a message to the false narrative spread by the Opposition (read BJP) about his annoyance on his resignation,” the aide said.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA Champai Soren takes oath as a minister in the newly formed Hemant Soren government, administered by Jharkhand Governor C. P. Radhakrishnan, at Raj Bhavan, in Ranchi PTI

For the first time in several years of the Jharkhand Assembly, all the 12 cabinet posts have been filled with seven from JMM, four from Congress and lone RJD MLA Satyanand Bhokta retaining his berth. There are three new faces in the cabinet with Latehar MLA Baidyanath Ram from JMM and Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari and Mahagama MLA Deepika Pandey Singh, both from the Congress.

Those who retained their ministerial berths include Rameshwar Oraon and Banna Gupta of the Congress, other than the JMM’s Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, Hafizul Hasan, Dipak Birua and Bebi Devi.

According to the number of MLAs in Jharkhand, there can be a total of 12 ministers, including the chief minister. After the formation of the government, for over four years, the work was done with a team of 11 ministers. These included six ministers from the JMM, four from the Congress and one from the RJD.

“According to the Supreme Court directive, only 15 per cent of members can be kept in the cabinet as per the number of MPs or MLAs. The total strength of the Jharkhand Assembly is 81 and based on the directive, the number is 12. Even during the Raghubar Das (2014-19) regime of the BJP, there was one vacant berth in the cabinet. However, because of the polls, the effort is to appease all disgruntled elements,” said another senior JMM leader.

After the Champai Soren-led cabinet took oath in February a section of Congress MLAs had openly revolted and even camped in Delhi expressing their resentment before AICC senior officials about continuing with “below performance” ministers.

“Baidyanath Ram’s name was axed from the Champai Soren cabinet at the last minute and he was included this time while Hemant’s younger brother Basant Soren conceded his ministerial berth. It is only a matter of two months and Basant Soren might be included during the next government after the 2024 Assembly polls,” added the leader.

There are talks in the political circles that the Centre might advance the Assembly polls in Jharkhand, along with Haryana and Maharashtra, to October against the scheduled November-December period. If true, the model code of conduct would be imposed from mid-September.

In the Congress quota, Pakur MLA and former minister Alamgir Alam (currently in judicial custody in a tender scam case after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate and subsequent resignation) and Jarmundi MLA Badal Patralekh (who held agriculture portfolio both under Hemant and Champai) were replaced.

Hemant was granted bail last month by Jharkhand High Court in the alleged land scam case. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on January 31 after his resignation and was under judicial custody for five months.

The 81-member Assembly’s effective strength is now 76 after four MLAs (two each from BJP and JMM) were elected to the Lok Sabha and one (JMM’s Sita Soren) resigned before joining the BJP this March. Sita is Hemant’s sister-in-law.