Grand Alliance leader Hemant Soren was sworn in as 11th Chief Minister of the State in a glittering ceremony at the historic Morhabadi ground here on Sunday. The event was attended by several leaders of prominent national and regional parties, corporate heads and over 15,000 people from across the State.
Governor Droupadi Murmu administered oath of office and secrecy to the Chief Minister around 2.18 pm, followed by Congress Legislative Party leader Alamgir Alam, JPCC president Rameshwar Oraon and RJD leader Satyanand Bhokta, who became ministers in the Hemant Soren’ Cabinet.
Two members of the Congress and one from the Rashtriya Janta Dal were included in the Cabinet. Sources said five other legislators from JMM and three from Congress will take oath as Ministers later in the New Year. The State has a quota of 12 Cabinet Ministers in the 81 member Assembly.
The Chief Minister soon after the swearing in ceremony went to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi’s statue at Morhabadi ground and talked to children present there. Later he went to Raj Bhawan for the ceremonial High Tea, where he met the officials and staff present on the occasion.
Soren, in the evening, paid homage to Jharkhand’s freedom fighter Bhagwan Birsa Munda at Birsa Chowk in the Capital City and told mediapersons that he was beginning to work by paying tributes to the brave revolutionaries of the State.
At Project Building Secretariat, before holding the first Cabinet meeting the CM addressed the officials and staff there and asked for their coordination and cooperation in giving speed to development works in the State.
Notably, the CM with his council of ministers decided to withdraw cases registered against people of the State who took part in the Patthalgadi movement and protest against tweaking of CNT, SPT Act in his first Cabinet meeting itself. The Cabinet also gave its nod to clear all dues of Government frontline workers etc immediately.
On the issue of implementation of NRC in the State, the CM said that he would study the documents related to NRC and then will take any decision.
Earlier before taking oath on Sunday, Hemant had tweeted, “I don’t think NRC is feasible or implementable. The entire country is up in arms against CAA. This is happening while our country is going through an economic crisis. We can’t make people stand in queue again like the way it happened during demonetisation. Many people lost their lives. What’s the need of such acts? Who will take responsibility for the lives lost? Even in these protests, the government is quelling dissent through police force. This is not democracy, it’s something else.”
Several important leaders of the nation congratulated the CM after swearing in ceremony including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Odisha CM Navin Patnaik, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, former PM HD Deve Gowda, former President of India Pranab Mukherjee and others.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, DMK leader MK Stalin, DMK leader and MP Muthuvel Karunanidhi Kanimozhi, DMK TR Balu, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri, CPI leader D Raja and Atul Anjan, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, former
CMs Shibu Soren, Raghubar Das, Madhu Koda and Babulal Marandi, RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav, HAM leader Jitan Ram
Manjhi, Congress leader TS Singhdeo, eminent socialist leader Sharad Yadav, senior leader Saryu Roy were among the prominent guests, who witnessed the historic event.
Decimating BJP’s “Mission 65 plus” dream, the Grand alliance secured 47 seats in the Assembly polls. The JMM had fielded 43 candidates and won 30 seats, while the Congress won 16 out of 31 candidates fielded. The third partner in the alliance RJD, won just one seat, while it had contestant on seven seats.