Jharkhand: Cabinet Expansion Triggers Turmoil In Ruling Alliance, JMM And Congress Leaderships In Fire-Fighting Mode

The fledgling Champai Soren government in Jharkhand has run into rough weather after a cabinet expansion that has left a few MLAs of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) as well as ally Congress angry and rebellious. 

Champai Soren was sworn in as Chief Minister on 2 February after his predecessor, Hemant Soren, resigned just before being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a land scam. 

Soren assumed office along with Alamgir Alam of the Congress and the lone RJD legislator Satyanand Bhokta. 

The Chief Minister put off the cabinet expansion in order to stave off a crisis that was brewing with many MLAs of his party and the Congress demanding cabinet berths. 

Champai Soren had feared that expanding his cabinet would leave out many hopefuls, who could then have rebelled and voted against a confidence motion slated for 5 February. 

At that time, a few MLAs from the Congress as well as the JMM had demanded that some Ministers in the earlier Hemant Soren cabinet be replaced and fresh faces be inducted. 

Champai Soren had assured all of them that their demands would be considered. Over the last ten days since the JMM-led alliance comfortably won the trust vote in the Assembly, many MLAs and leaders of factions within the JMM and Congress have been exerting pressure on Soren to accommodate them in the cabinet.

Soren ultimately expanded the cabinet by inducting eight new ministers Friday (16 February). The swearing-in ceremony at the Raj Bhavan Friday afternoon was preceded by high drama and last-minute firefighting by the state Congress leadership.

The list of proposed inductees that was sent from the Chief Minister’s Office to the Raj Bhavan Friday morning contained nine names--six from the JMM and three from the Congress. 

The six from the JMM were Basant Soren (Hemant Soren’s brother and JMM patriarch Shibu Soren’s youngest son), Deepak Birua, Mithlesh Thakur, Hafizul Hassan, Bebi Devi and Baidyanath Ram. Of them, Basant Soren and Deepak Birua were fresh faces while the other four were ministers under Hemant Soren. 

The Congress preferred to go with its old ministerial faces (those who were ministers under Hemant Soren) and recommended their names to Champai Soren. Thus, apart from Alamgir Alam who had already been sworn in on 2 February, the list contained the names of Ramneshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh. 

This set off a revolt within the Congress with a dozen MLAs of the party meeting at the Ranchi Circuit House and deciding against attending the swearing-in ceremony. 

The Congress has 16 MLAs and apart from Alamgir Alam and the three others whose names were in the list of inductees, the other twelve had raised the banner of revolt. 

The 12 Congress MLAs contended that the Alam and the three others who were slated to be made ministers later that day were “unpopular and corrupt”, and had given the party a bad name. 

“They (the four) had a good opportunity to serve the people of Jharkhand these past four years, but they were non-performers and also very corrupt. They have given the party a bad name and their misdeeds and inefficiency will affect our electoral prospects in Lok Sabha polls (slated for April-May this year) and also the Assembly polls due by the end of the year,” an MLA who is a ministerial hopeful told Swarajya over phone from state capital Ranchi. 

The revolt by the dozen Congress MLAs sparked panic in the state Congress leadership. The party in-charge of the state, Ghulam Ahmed Mir, along with Congress Legislature Party leader and minister Alamgir Alam and state party president Rajesh Thakur rushed to the Circuit House to meet the angry MLAs. 

A two-hour long stormy meeting followed in which the rebellious Congress MLAs hurled charges of corruption, nepotism and mis-governance against Alam and their three other colleagues who had served as Ministers and were slated to be inducted into the cabinet again. 

“The meeting was a turbulent one with heated exchanges between Alam and some MLAs, especially three who had been aspiring for cabinet berths. While Alam refuted the charges against him, the others accused Alam and the three others (ex-Ministers who would be re-inducted into the cabinet) of spoiling the name of the party and harming the party’s electoral prospects through their misdeeds,” Congress MLA Amba Prasad told Swarajya. 

Congress MLAs Irfan Ansari, Umashankar Akela and Dipika Pandey Singh were the ministerial hopefuls and had been in the forefront of the demand to replace the Congress Ministers in the Hemant Soren cabinet with fresh faces. 

They had been telling Ghulam Ahmed Mir (in charge of the Jharkhand Congress) that the four from the party who had served in the Hemant Soren ministry should be dropped and replaced with fresh faces. 

“This would have been the only way for our party to beat the huge anti-incumbency against it. But our demand was not met,” said another Congress MLA. 

Mir assured the rebellious MLAs that their anger was justified. “He (Mir) told us that due to many political compulsions, it was decided to re-induct those who had served as ministers under Hemant Soren. However, he also said that some remedial measures would be taken. He asked for a few days’ time and assured us that he would discuss our demands with the party high command and resolve the issue,” said the MLA. 

Speaking to Swarajya, Mir conceded that the anger of the MLAs was “natural and justified”. “But there is no crisis within the party and matters will be resolved amicably very soon,” he asserted. 

The rebellion in the Congress affected the JMM as well. Senior JMM MLA Baidyanath Ram (whose name was in the list of inductees) was told just before he was to leave for the Raj Bhavan that he would not be made a minister. 

“It was extremely insulting and disappointing. I have served as Minister in the past and belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community which constitutes 12 per cent of Jharkhand’s population. There is no member of the SC community in the state cabinet now and it is a grave insult to the community,” Ram told Swarajya. 

Chief Minister Champai Soren reportedly told Ram that “justice would be done” to him. “He (the CM) told me that my name was dropped at the last minute because of turmoil in the Congress. He told me he wanted to keep one berth vacant (Jharkhand can have a maximum of 12 ministers and it now has 11 ministers including the CM) to have some leeway,” said Ram. 

But Ram is far from placated. “The CM asked for two days’ time. I will wait, but I am keeping all options open,” he said. 

Ram, however, is not the only headache for the new CM. JMM legislator Sita Soren--widow of Shibu Soren’s eldest son Durga Soren--is hankering for a cabinet berth and is being backed by at least five MLAs. 

At least four other MLAs in the JMM have been demanding cabinet berths and they are now angry over being left out. 

“We have been repeatedly pointing out that our party has lost a lot of goodwill because of the many corruption charges against some ministers (in the Hemant Soren cabinet). We have been asking for their replacement,” one disgruntled JMM MLA told Swarajya. 

But ultimately, only one minister from the Hemant Soren cabinet--Joba Manjhi--was dropped. The Champai Soren has two new faces--Basant Soren and Deepak Birua. 

This has angered at least eight MLAs of the JMM (the party has 30 MLAs, including the jailed Hemant Soren). Champai Soren has reportedly sought the help of JMM president and founder Shibu Soren to placate the angry legislators of the party. 

The revolts within the ruling alliance members have provided wind to the BJP’s sails. 

“All the MLAs of the ruling alliance are power hungry and are fighting among themselves for ministerial berths. The new chief minister, instead of governing, is fire-fighting. If he has any conscience, he should step down. This government is corrupt and has failed to deliver, and that is why it is facing such a lot of turmoil,” state BJP chief Babulal Marandi told Swarajya.