Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren, who has on several occasions claimed to be part II of Hemant Soren, practised it on Friday evening by keeping the 12th cabinet minister slot vacant during the cabinet expansion at Ranchi.

Former chief minister and JMM executive president Hemant, who was arrested by the ED on January 31 on money laundering charges soon after he resigned as the chief minister, had kept the 12th cabinet minister slot vacant throughout his four-year tenure.

Hemant who is now in judicial custody led a JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government formed in December 2019.

“It had been decided to include Latehar MLA Baidyanath Ram who had left the BJP to join the JMM before the 2019 Assembly polls as the 12th cabinet minister and the name was also sent to the governor’s office. But had to be removed at the last moment on Friday afternoon before the oath-taking ceremony at 4pm after the chief minister and JMM leaders got fillers about resentment among the Congress MLAs who had been staking claim for the minister slot since 2019,” said a senior JMM leader.

“We wanted to toe the line of Hemant Da and keep the suspense over the 12th minister slot and not disturb the ruling coalition government with only a few months left for Lok Sabha polls and Assembly polls scheduled later this year,” added the JMM leader considered close to Champai Soren.

As per constitutional provisions, a state can have cabinet ministers up to 15 per cent of the total number of members of the Legislative Assembly of that state. Jharkhand Assembly has a total strength of 81 seats and the JMM-led alliance has 47 MLAs.