Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday and extended a formal invitation for the swearing-in ceremony of his government, which is scheduled to take place in Ranchi on November 28.
Hemant Soren was accompanied by his wife Kalpana Soren, the newly elected MLA from Gandey constituency. Prime Minister Modi congratulated Hemant and Kalpana Soren on their electoral success and shared pictures of the meeting on X.
Earlier, Hemant Soren also met Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and party President Mallikarjun Kharge, inviting them to the ceremony. A JMM spokesperson said that invitations have been sent to various prominent political figures, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Bihar's Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal, CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, and the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The swearing-in ceremony is set to take place at Morabadi Ground, Ranchi, on November 28 at 4 p.m. Along with the Chief Minister, several other ministers are expected to take the oath. Hemant Soren was unanimously elected as the leader of the INDIA bloc in the state on Sunday. The Hemant Soren Cabinet is likely to have representation from all regions and different communities.
A JMM sources said Kalpana, who swept to power from the Gandey Assembly constituency with a margin of more than 17,000 votes, “cannot be ruled out” as a minister in the state’s 12-member cabinet. She is among 12 women MLAs to have been elected in the Assembly polls this time – three from the JMM, five from Congress and four from BJP.
On Thursday, half of the 12-member Cabinet – in which one seat is likely to remain vacant like last time – will be sworn in from among JMM, Congress and RJD legislators; the rest will follow. Each of the five administrative regions of the state will be represented,” the source said, adding that the cabinet was not likely to accommodate a Deputy Chief Minister and “most of the portfolios would remain the same as in the previous government.”
According to JMM sources, the post of Speaker of the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha was likely to “remain with the JMM” and a five-day session was likely to be scheduled starting Monday.
The results of the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly elections, announced on November 23, gave the Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD alliance a resounding victory with 56 seats. The JMM won 34, the Congress 16, the RJD 4, and the CPI-ML 2 seats. This marks the first time a government in Jharkhand has secured a two-thirds majority.
Hemant Soren will make history as the first leader to be sworn in as Jharkhand's Chief Minister four times. He first took oath on July 13, 2013, leading a Congress-RJD-supported government until December 2014.
He returned as CM on December 29, 2019, but had to resign after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 31, 2024. After his release on bail, he was sworn in for the third time on July 4, 2024.
Earlier, his father Shibu Soren, and BJP’s Arjun Munda have each served three terms as Jharkhand Chief Minister.
