Having fans can be a political liability, newbie Barkagaon MLA of the Congress, Amba Prasad, discovered on Wednesday.

Amba, who has quite a following in Barkagaon, was taken aback to discover that she had already been anointed minister in the new Hemant Soren’s JMM-Congress-RJD governments.

The daughter of veteran politicians Yogendra Sao and Nirmala Devi, Didi, as she is affectionately called by her young supporters, started receiving congratulatory messages on social media platforms. Some even started wondering how she could become the “HRD minister” without taking oath.

Amba was forced to come forward on Wednesday evening and contradict this news.

Thanking the people of Barkagaon for their love and support, she said she was grateful to people for the congratulatory messages but added it was far from truth. “No such decision (of my elevation to the cabinet) has been taken either by the Congress or the Jharkhand government,” she said. “I contradict this news.”

So far, the Hemant Soren government has three ministers, two from the Congress and one from the RJD.

The Congress hopes to get three more berths and it is likely that one of them would be a woman.

Amba apart, the other contenders are Deepika Pandey Singh, Mamta Devi and Purnima Singh, all first-time MLAs of the Congress. It is no secret that four all want to become ministers.

An unpologetic supporter of Amba said they would do whatever they had to to ensure their Didi was ahead in the ministerial race. “She is new but she is the best,” the supporter said.