President Droupadi Murmu has invited Narendra Modi - as leader of the National Democratic Alliance - to form the next union government, days after the coalition eased to victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Modi will take oath, as too will members of his new cabinet, at 6 pm Sunday. Modi will be the first three-term PM since Congress stalwart Jawaharlal Nehru.
Days after the declaration of general election results, the state BJP unit is abuzz with speculations regarding ministerial berths in the new cabinet Narendra Modi’s government.
In the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-2019), Jharkhand’s two parliamentarians Jayant Sinha (Hazaribag) and Sudershan Bhagat (Lohardaga) found a place in Modi’s first tenure. In the 17 Lok Sabha (2019-2024), the two parliamentarians who found a place were Arjun Munda (Khunti) and Annapurna Devi (Koderma).
Out of these four only Annapurna Devi is presently MP as she won the Koderma seat for third consecutive time. While Arjun Munda who was Minister of Tribal Affairs and later given additional portfolio of agriculture minister in Modi Cabinet 2 lost to Congress Kalicharan Munda, the other two Sudershan Bhagat and Jayant Sinha did not contest the election.
Sources said that this time as the Modi government has to adjust its allies especially—the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (united) it is unlikely that Jharkhand will get a fair representation this time.
A senior BJP leader requesting anonymity said, “The last two governments Modi 1 and 2 were BJP government and NDA allies were given token representation in cabinet, but this time as BJP has not got the magic number (272) on its own it has depend upon its allies partner for government formation.” “In such a situation, the allies' partners such as TDP, JDU, Chirag Paswan, Shiv Sena and others will get fair representation. Apart from this, the states where BJP made a clean sweep too will get lion’s share in Cabinet. States such as Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand will get many ministerial berths.”
In Jharkhand, Godda MP Nishikant Dubey and Jamshedpur MP Vidyut Baran Mahto are probable, who will be given ministerial berths. Sitting BJP MP Nishikant Dubey won the Godda Lok Sabha seat in Jharkhand by a margin of 1.01 lakh votes, defeating his nearest rival Congress's Pradeep Yadav.
Dubey has been winning the seat since 2009. In 2019, he retained the seat by defeating Yadav, who had then contested as a JVM-P candidate, by a margin of over 1.84 lakh votes.
The other MP who is in the fray is Bidyut Baran Mahto who retained the Jamshedpur constituency by a margin of 2,59,782. Maho won the Jamshedpur seat for the third consecutive time. Vidyut Varan Mahto has been continuously winning the Lok Sabha elections on BJP ticket since 2014. He defeated his nearest rival JMM candidate Sameer Mohanty by 2 lakh 59 thousand 894 votes.
Koderma MP and former Union Minister Annapurna Devi, who won by 352403 votes against CPI-ML’s Vinod Singh, is also one the contenders for ministerial post. Former Jharkhand DGP and BJP candidate from Palamu who won his seat by a huge margin of 288807 votes against RJD’s Mamta Bhuiyan, too is in the list of cabinet berths.
