Ranchi, December 5
In Jharkhand, the cabinet was expanded by the Hemant Soren government. Meanwhile, a total of 11 MLAs, including six from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and four from the Congress, took oath as ministers. Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar administered the oath of office to all at Ashok Udyan located in Raj Bhavan. The six MLAs of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha include the names of Sudivya Kumar, Deepak Birua, Ramdas Soren, Chamra Linda, Yogendra Prasad and Hafijul Hasan. Similarly, Congress MLAs Deepika Pandey Singh, Shilpi Neha Tirke, Irfan Ansari and Radhakrishna Kishore while RJD’s Sanjay Prasad Yadav also took oath as a minister.
It may be mentioned that Hemant Soren took oath as Chief Minister on November 28. The new government includes six new faces. While Deepika Pandey Singh, Irfan Ansari, Deepak Birua and Ramdas Soren have got the chance to become ministers for the second time, Hafeezul Hasan has become the minister for the third time.
The swearing-in ceremony began with the swearing-in of Stephen Marandi as the Pro-tem Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. Last month, the JMM-led coalition came to power for the second time in Jharkhand. In the 81-member assembly, the JMM alliance got 56 seats while the BJP-led NDA got 24 seats. -News-Patiala