Hemant Soren will reach Raj Bhavan at 4 pm to stake claim to form govt

Hemant Soren

Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren will go to Raj Bhavan in Ranchi at 4 pm to resign and stake the claim to form the government again in Jharkhand.

The Hemant Soren-led JMM steered the INDIA bloc to victory on November 23 with 56 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly.  Its allies Congress and RJD secured 16 and 4 seats respectively, propelling the alliance past the majority mark of 41 in the 81-seated Assembly. He is set to be sworn into the office for the fourth time.

Top leaders of the INDIA bloc, including Rahul Gandhi, and Arvind Kejriwal, are likely to participate in the swearing-in ceremony.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have also been invited to the event, sources said.

Who are likely to join the Cabinet?

According to sources, six MLAs from the Congress and four from the RJD are likely to join the Soren Cabinet.

Notably, the INDIA bloc returned to power in Jharkhand winning 56 seats in the 81-seated state Assembly. Hemant Soren steered the alliance, which was under the heat due to allegations of corruption and appeasement politics in the run-up to the polls, to a massive victory.

Jharkhand Assembly Election Results

The ruling INDIA bloc in the state crushed the BJP’s hopes of a return to power as the saffron party put in efforts to consolidate the Hindu votes with “Ek Hai Toh Safe Hai” and “Batenge Toh Katenge” slogans. The saffron party also raised the issue of infiltration in the state, however, the JMM-led alliance decimated the BJP, restricting it to 21 seats in the state.

The JMM won 34 seats and thus emerged as the single-largest party in the alliance

Soren thanked the people of Jharkhand for the mandate and said that his party has passed the “exam of democracy”.

“We have passed the exam of democracy in Jharkhand; we will finalise our strategy after the election results,” Soren said at a press conference as the trends showed his party winning on Saturday.

(With inputs from PTI)