After six weeks of his taking oath of office as Chief Minister, Hemant Soren inducted three more ministers to his Cabinet, taking the tally to 12. As per Constitutional provisions, Jharkhand has a quota of maximum 12 ministers, including the Chief Minister.
Governor Dr Syed Ahmed administered the oath of office and secrecy to Vishrampur MlA Chandrasekhar Dubey alias Dadai Dubey, Dhanbad MlA Manan Malik and Barkagoan MlA Yogendra Sao of Congress in the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhawan's Birsa Mandap on Saturday. Incidentally, Soren had inducted six ministers on August 4 after taking oath along with Congress legislature Party leader RP Singh and RJD-lP leader Annapurna Devi on July 13.
The JMM and the Congress have five ministers each while the RJD has two in the JMM-Congress coalition government. Supported by Congress, RJD, smaller parties and Independent MlAs, the JMM had on July 9 staked claim to form the government under the leadership of its leader Hemant Soren and sailed through the floor test on July 18.
Interestingly, no independent turned up in the swearing-in ceremony along with those whose names had been in the probable list of the Congress. Gandey MlA Sarfaraz Ahmed, Jamshedpur (East) MlA Banna Gupta and Chhatarpur MlA KN Tripathi did not urn up for the ceremony as "only those who were interested came to attend the function for whom it was organised. The independents and the disgruntled MlAs had no reasons to attend the ceremony," said a JMM leader.
Supporters of Yogendra Saw and the two other ministers were seen at the Raj Bhawan. The event had become a trivial affair for many as Cabinet expansion was a common affair for people of the State, said a spectator. The senior most among the trio, Vishrampur MlA Chandrasekhar Dubey was first to take oath followed by Mallik. The entire process took a about 17 minutes to finish.
Meanwhile, disgruntled MlA Bandhu Tirkey said he was not interested to join the ceremony as he had nothing to do there."Who all had come thereIJ I don't know I don't have any idea. I have more important work in my constituency," said Tirkey. "I am a retail businessman I don't know about wholesalers," quipped Tirkey asking about which minister got what portfolio.