Ranchi: Ahead of the cabinet expansion of Champai Soren government, a discord within Congress has surfaced with around 10 party MLAs locking themselves in a room in the circuit house in protest.
It has been learnt that a few Congress MLAs sent their names to Rahul Gandhi for ministerial berths but when things did not turn out as desired, they locked themselves in a room. Among the MLAs include Anoop Singh, Dr. Irfan Ansari, Amba Prasad, Ramchandra Chero, Bhushan Bada, Deepika Pandey Singh and others.
The cabinet expansion is likely at around 4 pm and it would include many new faces. Two deputy CMs one each from Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Congress would take oath. JMM chief Shibu Soren's son Basant Soren may be appointed as a deputy CM.
JMM will continue with most of the MLAs who held ministerial berths in the previous government and may have one or two new faces. However, Congress is likely to have new faces in three of the four ministerial positions.
In the previous cabinet, the four ministers from Congress quota were Alamgir Alam, Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal. It is being speculated that barring Alam, who has already taken oath along with Champai, the remaining three may be replaced.
As per constitutional provisions, the state can have 12 ministers along with the CM. Sources said JMM leaders Deepak Birua, Baijnath Ram, Basant Soren, Baby Devi and Mithilesh Thakur are likely to take oaths as ministers. Earlier, Champai had taken oath along with two ministers including Alam and Styanand Bhokta, RJD MLA.
Read more
