Over one-and-a-half months after having been sworn in, Chief Minister Raghubar Das expanded his Cabinet inducting six new ministers, but kept the suspense alive by keeping one berth vacant.
Governor Syed Ahmed in a simple function organised at Birsa Mandap in the Raj Bhawan premises administered oath to six MlAs, all from the ruling BJP.
The names also included two — Amar Kumar Bauri of Chandankiyari and Randhir Singh from Sarath who had along with four others joined the BJP quite recently after jettisoning the JVM.
Besides the two, Jamshedpur (West) MlA Saryu Roy, Ramchandra Chandravansi from Bishrampur, Raj Paliwar from Madhupur, Neera Yadav from Koderma are the other faces. The number has taken bench strength of the Cabinet to 11, one short of the upper limit set for the State.
Speculations were also rife over leaving one seat vacant, given the constitutional mandate that the Cabinet strength can’t be ‘less than 12 in Jharkhand. The Opposition had already made hue and cry over the truncated cabinet so far.
“It is probably aimed for JVM-2,” said an AJSU leader. Along with the erstwhile JVM faction some from the Congress were also in line to join the BJP.
Selection of the legislators to represent the Government has been done keeping seniority of the leaders, regional aspirations and social equations in mind. Where Amar Kumar Bauri belongs to Scheduled Caste, Ramchandra Chandravansi is an OBC and would be representing Palamu region into the Cabinet. Santhal Pargana has been given a place in the form of Randhir Singh who has been rewarded for his move to strengthen the BJP in the House of 81.
Saryu Roy would be the senior most face of the Raghubar Das Cabinet while ‘giant killer’ Neera Yadav who has defeated RJD’s Annapurna Devi would be the second woman after lois Marandi to get ministerial position.
However, notable omission from the list is of Naveen Jaiswal of Hatia. Jaiswal was the one who led the entire flock of the JVM to the BJP and maneuvered the defection along with Randhir Singh. Another hopeful was Daltonganj MlA Alok Chaurasia who even drove to the Chief Minister’s residence in the morning but returned without meeting him.
It is learnt that the BJP strategists played a balancing act as far as AJSU is concerned. AJSU with five MlAs and a pre-poll partner of the BJP was claimant of another berth after Chandra Prakash Chaudhary was given representation earlier.
Reluctant BJP went into huddle with the AJSU on the issue which resulted into an agreement to keep Naveen Jaiswal out of the race and adjust him somewhere else. Jaiswal, just before the elections, had left the AJSU and went into public condemning the party and its way of functioning before getting ticket from the JVM.
“He has said a lot against our supremo Sudesh Mahto and the party. It would not have been a comfortable situation for us had he been inducted into the Cabinet,” said a senior AJSU leader. Moreover, for some the decision came a cropper.
“It is unfortunate that the AJSU could not get any berth. It is also disappointing for the people of lohardaga. The party is till now adhering to the coalition dharma and if the response is not going to be same then we would reconsider (on extending support to the BJP). The party working committee would discuss the matter,” said Kamal Kishore Bhagat who was among the front runners for a ministerial position.
The selection also came as heartbreak for some from the BJP. “I would not attend the oath taking ceremony. The persons given berths are more educated and experienced than me. They can serve the dalits better,” said a BJP MlA sarcastically whose name was doing rounds prominently.