Jharkhand Mukti Morcha executive president Hemant Soren on Sunday met Governor Santosh Gangwar and staked a claim to form the next government. He was accompanied by Congress in-charge for Jharkhand GA Mir and other INDIA bloc partners and their representatives, including the RJD and the CPIML.
Soren resigned as the Chief Minister before staking a claim to form the government. He will officiate as the Acting Chief Minister till oath is administered to him on November 28. Significantly, with the swearing ceremony set to take place on November 28, Hemant Soren for the fourth time is set to be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand.
“On 28 November, the oath ceremony of the new government will take place. Today we have started the procedure to form the (Indian) alliance government, and in that series, we have staked a claim to form a government in front of the Governor. I also tendered my resignation to him…Congress and the RJD in charge were also present here…On November 28, the oath ceremony will take place,” Soren said.
Earlier, leaders and MLAs of the alliance held a meeting at Hemant Soren’s residence here and unanimously elected him as the coalition’s leader. Congress’s Jharkhand in-charge and party general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir and senior party leader Rajesh Thakur also attended the meeting, besides legislators of the coalition parties.
On Saturday, he led the ruling coalition to a comfortable majority in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly becoming the first incumbent to return to power. Soren successfully beat anti-incumbency and BJP’s aggressive narratives built around his alleged corruption and encouragement to illegal immigration and settlement in tribal lands of the state. Soren’s party won 34 seats, Congress 16, RJD 6 and CPI ML 2.
In 2019, the JMM-alliance had won 47 seats, wresting power from the BJP. The JMM had won 30 seats, while Congress bagged 16, apart from the one seat secured by the RJD.
