The expansion of the Hemant Soren government’s cabinet is likely to take place on Tuesday at Raj Bhavan.

A source at Raj Bhavan said they had “received orders” to prepare for the swearing-in, tentatively at 4pm.

But till late on Monday, there was no clarity on the names of the Congress and the JMM legislators who would become ministers.

A senior Congress leader told The Telegraph that five MLAs from his party would get cabinet berths and that two of those were likely to take oath on Tuesday.

“The Congress will have five ministers in the cabinet. Two of our MLAs, Rameshwar Oraon and Alamgir Alam, have already taken oath along with chief minister Hemant Soren on December 29. Tomorrow (Tuesday) another two will take oath. One Congress minister’s seat will remain vacant, which the party will fill up later,” said the Congress veteran.

Though the Congress veteran claimed that the names of probables would be declared by Monday night, till 9.30pm there was no news on the names.

So far, in the JMM-Congress-RJD combine, apart from Hemant of the JMM and the two MLAs from Congress, MLA Satyanand Bhokta of the RJD had taken oath on December 29. It leaves eight seats vacant, as the Jharkhand cabinet can have 12 ministers, including the chief minister.

The Congress, from the start, had been insisting on five ministerial berths.

On January 23, Hemant had met governor Droupadi Murmu on cabinet expansion, and the governor’s office had fixed January 24 as the day.

Within a few hours, however, Hemant had to backtrack, purportedly as the Congress cried foul on coming to know that two, and not three more, from the party would get cabinet berths.

JVM ripples

JVM chief Babulal Marandi is likely to convene a meeting of his party’s new working committee early in February. A senior JVM leader said the meeting would be vital in the light of talks about the party’s probable merger in the BJP. “But the party will wait till the cabinet expansion as our expelled MLA Bandhu Tirkey and MLA Pradeep Yadav are in touch with the Congress for cabinet berths,” the source said.