Hemant Soren may take oath as Jharkhand CM alone, Cabinet to be sworn in later

Hemant Soren is scheduled to take the oath of office as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand today for the fourth time. The ceremony will take place at Morhabadi Ground in Ranchi, where Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar is expected to administer the oath. While Soren is confirmed to take the oath, it remains uncertain whether his cabinet colleagues will be sworn in at the same time, as the finalization of the cabinet list is still underway.

According to sources, Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) is expected to retain six ministerial positions, with the allocation of these posts likely following the formula used during the previous term. Under this formula, the JMM would receive one ministerial berth for every five of its elected MLAs. The Congress, which secured 16 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, is likely to be allocated four ministerial positions, though the selection of Congress ministers is still under discussion. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which won four seats in the state elections, will reportedly be allotted one ministerial position in the new government.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) or CPI-ML, which won two seats, has not yet requested a ministerial berth. It is unclear whether CPI-ML will join the cabinet or continue to support the government from the outside. A decision regarding the party’s role in the cabinet is expected to be made during a standing committee meeting scheduled for November 29.

The new cabinet will be limited to 12 members, including the Chief Minister, in accordance with a Supreme Court directive that restricts the number of cabinet members to 15% of the total strength of the legislative assembly. As the Jharkhand Assembly has 81 members, the cabinet can have no more than 12 ministers.

The oath-taking ceremony is expected to be attended by several prominent leaders from the INDIA alliance, including Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, NCP President Sharad Pawar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, and other political figures. Soren and his wife Kalpana Soren had also visited Delhi recently to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss a collaborative roadmap for the state’s development.