Ranchi: Jharkhand, Chief Minister Champai Soren expanded his cabinet on Friday. Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan administered the oath to the newly appointed ministers in a ceremony held at Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. Eight MLAs were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers, out of which five are from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and three from Congress. Those who took oath as ministers include JMM’s Basant Soren, Baby Devi, Hafijul Hasan, Mithilesh Kumar Thakur and Deepak Biruwa. Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal from Congress have been included. Alamgir Alam from Congress and RJD’s Satyanand Bhokta have already taken oath as ministers with Chief Minister Champai Soren.
No changes were made in the Congress and all three retained their Ministerial berth whereas JMM made two changes. In the place of Hemant Soren, his younger brother and MLA from Dumka assembly seat Basant Soren was given the Ministerial post whereas in place of Joba Manjhi, who represents Manoharpur Assembly constituency, Deepak Barua was given the chance to become the Minister. The post of twelfth minister in the Council of Ministers is still vacant in Champai Soren’s government also. Former Chief Minister Hemant Soren was allegedly arrested by the Enforcement Directorate, on January 31 in the land scam case. After this, senior JMM leader Champai Soren was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
