The Hemant Soren-led coalition government in Jharkhand will expand its cabinet on December 5, after receiving the Congress quota of ministers’ names from the AICC headquarters on Tuesday night.

JMM central general secretary and party spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya confirmed that the cabinet expansion would take place on December 5 afternoon.

“The date of the cabinet expansion — December 5 — has been sent to the Raj Bhavan. It will be a blend of experience and energy and include participation of all five divisions of the state,” said Bhattacharya.

He, however, refused to name the ministerial berth aspirants from JMM stating: “This is the special privilege of the chief minister to decide the ministers to be included in his cabinet. We can only assure that the cabinet will function like a team and deliver the promises made to the masses.”

Congress state president Keshav Mahato said that the party high command will be finalising the names of the ministerial aspirants and sending them to the chief minister’s (Hemant Soren) office on Tuesday night.

“We have sent a tentative list of names to the AICC which will in turn take the final call on ministers from the Congress quota. We have come to know that the list will be sent to the chief minister’s office on Tuesday night before the cabinet expansion scheduled on December 5,” said Mahato.

The swearing-in of the cabinet colleagues, along with berth allocations, is necessary before the first Assembly session of the newly elected government, scheduled from December 9 to 12.

According to sources in the JMM, 11 ministers will take oath on December 5 including six from the JMM, four from the Congress and one from the RJD.

The CPI-ML, which was part of the alliance during the Assembly polls and has two elected MLAs, has decided against joining the government but would support the government on policy decisions.

“The CPI-ML national general secretary (Dipankar Bhattacharya) has communicated to us that they will not be joining the government but would support the government on policy decisions while continuing to agitate for people. We will certainly take the CPI-ML MLAs’ opinion during policy decisions,” said Supriyo Bhattacharya.

The names of Chaibasa MLA Deepak Birua, Ghatshila MLA Ramdas Soren, Tundi MLA Mathura Mahato, Jama MLA Louis Marandi and Bhawnathpur MLA Anand Pratap Deo are being considered as front runners from the JMM for ministerial berths.

Sources in the Congress said that Congress MLA from Jamtara Irfan Ansari, Lohardaga MLA Rameshwar Oraon, Ramgarh MLA Mamata Devi and Bermo MLA Jaimangal Singh are among the front runners for cabinet berths.

In the RJD quota, Deoghar MLA Suresh Paswan’s name has been proposed by the party for the cabinet.