RANCHI — Six new faces and two women are among 11 MLAs who took oath as
ministers in the Hemant Soren government in Jharkhand on Thursday.
Of the 11 legislators who were sworn in as ministers, six
are from the JMM and four from the Congress.
Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar administered the oath to
the ministers at Ashok Udyan of the Raj Bhavan here.
The six JMM legislators, who took oath as ministers, are
Sudivya Kumar, Deepak Birua, Ramdas Soren, Chamra Linda, Yogendra Prasad and
Hafijul Hasan.
Congress MLAs Deepika Pandey Singh, Shilpi Neha Tirkey,
Irfan Ansari and Radhakrishna Kishore were sworn in as ministers, while RJD's
Sanjay Prasad Yadav also found a berth.
JMM leader Hemant Soren took oath as the chief minister
on November 28.
Six new faces have been inducted into the Hemant Soren
government, while Deepika Pandey Singh, Irfan Ansari, Deepak Birua and Ramdas
Soren have got ministerial positions for the second time and Hafizul Hasan for
the third.
The swearing-in ceremony began with Stephen Marandi
taking oath as the pro-tem speaker of the assembly.
Marandi, a senior JMM MLA, was appointed as pro-tem
Speaker of the assembly after Hemant Soren took oath as the chief minister last
week.
The CM, soon after the swearing-in ceremony told
reporters, “Now our work will gain momentum and the government will move ahead
with full speed.”
Congress' Shilpi Neha Tirkey thanked the senior
leadership of the party for giving her the responsibility.
“It’s a big responsibility and I will try to fulfil it.
Whatever department is given to me, I will try to do justice with my work,” she
said.
JMM’s Sudivya Kumar said, “I will work for the betterment
of the state and make all efforts to take all vital development indices to the
top."
The JMM-led alliance, last month, stormed to power in
Jharkhand for the second time in a row, securing 56 seats in the 81-member
assembly, while the BJP-headed NDA managed 24.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which emerged as a
surprise element in the Jharkhand assembly elections with its candidates
winning in four of the six seats where the party contested, got one ministerial
berth.
In 2019, the RJD managed to win only the Chatra seat
where Satyanand Bhokta had won.
The JMM got a total of seven berths, including CM Soren,
in the 12-member cabinet.
The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) contested 43 seats and
won 34, the highest-ever constituencies bagged by the party in the assembly
polls.
The Congress got four ministerial berths. The party had
won 16 seats in the assembly elections, while CPI(ML) Liberation, which secured
two seats as an ally of the INDIA bloc, earlier announced that it would not be
a part of the cabinet.
The BJP contested 68 seats, won 21 and emerged as the
second-largest party in the assembly.
After Soren took oath last Saturday, it was also decided
that an assembly session would be held from December 9-12.
Congress’ Kishore won the Chattarpur assembly seat by
defeating BJP’s Pushpa Devi by 736 votes while JMM's Birua registered a
thumping victory from the Chaibasa constituency over BJP’s Geeta Balmuchu with
a margin of 64,835 votes.
JMM’s Linda bagged the Bishunpur seat by a margin of
32,756 votes, defeating BJP candidate and former Rajya Sabha MP Samir Oraon,
while RJD's Yadav beat BJP’s Amit Kumar Mandal by a margin of 21,471 votes to
win the Godda assembly seat.
Similarly, JMM's Ramdas Soren won the Ghatshila seat by
defeating BJP’s Babulal Soren, who is also the son of former chief minister
Champai Soren, by a margin of 22,446 votes and Congress’ Ansari registered a
victory from the Jamtara assembly seat by beating BJP candidate Sita Murmu
(Soren) by 43,676 votes.
JMM’s Hasan won the Madhupur assembly seat by defeating
BJP’s Ganga Narayan Singh by 20,027 votes while Congress’ Deepika Pandey Singh
secured the Mahagama assembly constituency by beating BJP’s Ashok Kumar by a
margin of 18,645 votes.
While JMM's Yogendra Prasad won the Gomia assembly seat
by defeating AJSU Party’s Lambodar Mahato by a margin of 36,093 votes and the
party's Sudivya Kumar won the Giridih segment, defeating BJP’s Nirbhay Kumar
Shahabadi by a margin of 3,838 votes.
Congress’ Shilpi Neha Tirke,y who is the daughter of
former minister Bandhu Tirkey, registered a win over BJP’s Sunny Toppo in the
Mandar assembly constituency with a margin of 22,803 votes.
