JMM chief Shibu Soren's youngest son Basant, 7 others sworn in as ministers in Champai Soren govt

Basant Soren, JMM supremo Shibu Soren’s youngest son, and seven others on Friday took oath as ministers in Jharkhand’s Champai Soren-led government.

Basant is also the younger brother of former chief minister Hemant Soren, who is in judicial custody in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.

Besides him, the new face in the 11-member cabinet is JMM's Chaibasa MLA Deepak Birua.

Basant Soren was elected as an MLA from Dumka assembly constituency, after he defeated BJP’s Louis Marandi with a margin of 6,842 votes in a by-poll held in November 2020.

Birua won the Chaibasa seat by defeating BJP’s J B Tubid by more than 26,000 votes in the 2019 assembly polls.

Those who retained their ministerial berths include Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh of the Congress in addition to JMM’s Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, Hafizul Hasan and Bebi Devi.

Governor C P Radhakrishnan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers.

The oath-taking ceremony was held at the Birsa Mandap of Raj Bhavan in presence of senior leaders of the JMM-led alliance and other government officials.

''The portfolios will be distributed today. We will take forward the work of Jharkhand’s development after assigning responsibilities to every minister,'' the CM said.

“The party has given me a big responsibility and I hope to fulfill it,” Basant Soren said. Birua also expressed happiness over his induction in the cabinet. “I will work for the welfare of the state with vigour and zeal,” he asserted. JMM minister Hafizul Hasan added: “This is the oath of sorrow that we have taken today as our leader (Hemant Soren) is in jail. We have to intensify our struggle for justice.” Madhupur legislator Hasan was the minister of tourism, art, culture and sports in the previous government.

Meanwhile, JMM’s Latehar MLA Baidyanath Ram, whose name initially featured in the list of ministers, was allegedly dropped at the eleventh hour.

A close associate of Ram said that his name was withdrawn following a discussion with the chief minister. “The CM has assured him that he would be considered in future,” the aide said.

Ram could not be reached for comments.

Champai Soren, however, said that discussions over the 12th minister “are still underway”. Rameshwar Oraon, who was re-inducted in the cabinet, earlier held the finance portfolio during the Hemant Soren government.

Banna Gupta, a congress legislator from the Jamshedpur West constituency, was health minister in the previous JMM government, while Badal Patralekh held the agriculture portfolio.

Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, a JMM legislator from Garhwa, was earlier the drinking water and sanitation minister, and Bebi Devi was the excise minister.

She contested the Dumri by-poll in 2023 after the death of her husband Jagannath Mahto.

On February 2, Champai Soren, 67, was sworn in as the 12th chief minister of the state, while senior Congress leader Alamgir Alam and RJD leader Satyanand Bhokta took oath as ministers.

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31, shortly after he resigned as the chief minister.

The JMM-led alliance in the state has 47 MLAs – JMM-29, Congress-17 and one of the RJD – in the 81-member assembly.

The BJP has 26 legislators and the AJSU Party has three. The NCP and CPI (ML) have one lawmaker each, apart from two Independents. There is also a nominated member.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)