Former Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren and 10 other leaders of the JMM-led coalition took oath as ministers in the Hemant Soren government after it won a trust vote in the assembly amid a walkout by opposition members on Monday.
Champai Soren had filled in for the role of CM in Jharkhand in the absence of Hemant Soren after he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.
Soren was released from jail on June 28 after the Jharkhand High Court granted bail. Champai Soren then resigned from the post of CM on July 3, a day before JMM executive president Hemant Soren took oath as the 13th chief minister of Jharkhand on July 4.
Jharkhand Governor C P Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 11 leaders at a function in the Raj Bhavan in the presence of Chief Minister Hemant Soren and other senior politicians of the JMM-led alliance and government officials.
Jharkhand Cabinet - 11 Ministers Take Oath
Champai Soren (JMM)
Irfan Ansari (Congress)
Deepika Pandey Singh (Congress)
Baidynath Ram (JMM)
Rameshwar Oraon (Congress)
Banna Gupta (Congress)
Mithilesh Kumar Thakur (JMM)
Hafizul Hasan (JMM)
Dipak Birua (JMM)
Bebi Devi (JMM)
Satyanand Bhokta (RJD)
Ram's name had been excluded at the last moment from the list of ministers in the previous Champai Soren cabinet, which he had termed as an "insult".
The three new faces in the 12-member cabinet, which includes the chief minister, are Congress's Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari, Mahagama MLA Deepika Pandey Singh and JMM's Latehar MLA Baidynath Ram.
After winning the trust vote, Hemant Soren said, "Today, everyone again got to witness the unity and strength of the ruling alliance. I thank the Speaker and all the alliance MLAs."
He said the JMM-led alliance has been performing strongly since coming to power in 2019 by following the constitutional procedures and it was again witnessed during the day.
Seventy-five MLAs were present in the assembly during the voting.
Independent legislator Saryu Roy abstained from voting.
A total of 45 MLAs, including nominated member Glen Joseph Galstaun, voted in favour of the confidence motion.
JMM chief Shibu Soren's youngest son Basant Soren and Congress's Badal Patralekh, who were road construction and agriculture ministers respectively in the former Champai Soren government, have been dropped as ministers in the Hemant Soren dispensation.
Two JMM MLAs namely Nalin Soren and Joba Majhi are now parliamentarians, while Jama legislator Sita Soren resigned to contest the Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket.
