It will be the JMM chief’s third tenure as chief minister
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren, who heads a four-party coalition in Jharkhand that includes the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), will be sworn in as chief minister — for the third time — on December 30 after Governor K Sankaranaryanan today invited the tribal leader to form the government.
“Soren will be sworn in at 2 pm on December 30, which he told the governor would be convenient for him,” a Raj Bhavan source said here. It would be an advance birthday gift for Soren, who turns 66 on January 11. The governor is expected to issue a formal communique in this regard only tomorrow, in which he is likely to fix a date for Soren to prove his majority on the floor of the House.
President’s Rule, which is in force since January this year in the state, is also likely to be revoked tomorrow. The new Soren government is taking BJP support for the first time. It will be the seventh coalition government in the mineral-rich state since its creation on November 15, 2000.
Soren’s previous two tenures as chief minister were for a short duration.
The JMM-led coalition has a support of 44 MLAs in the 81-member Assembly. Soren, along with BJP leader Raghubar Das and All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) leader Sudesh Mahato, had yesterday called on the governor and given letters of support of 42 MLAs in the House.
Later, last night, the figure swelled to 44 after the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) also handed over a letter of support of its two MLAs to the governor. The JMM, which has 18 MLAs, has got the assured support of BJP(18), JD-U(2) AJSU(5) and JJM(1). There was no final word on whether BJP and JD-U will be part of the government.
