Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) working president Hemant Soren formally took his oath as the 11th Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Sunday, i.e. December 29. Governor Droupadi Murmu administered the oath to Hemant Soren at 2 PM at Morabadi Ground in Jharkhand's capital, Ranchi. Along with Soren, RJD's Satyanand Bhogta and Congress' Rameshwar Oraon took oath as Ministers as well, administered by the governor.
The oath-taking ceremony was a grand event, with a galore of top politicos. The ceremony was attended by former President of India Pranab Mukherjee, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, just to name a few. Along with them, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)'s Sanjay Singh and DMK president MK Stalin, and RJD executive President Tejashwi Yadav were also present at the ceremony.
In a gesture of goodwill, outgoing Jharkhand Chief Minister and BJP leader Raghubar Das attended Hemant Soren's swearing-in ceremony as the latter had personally invited Das over the phone earlier.
In the recently conducted Jharkhand Legislative Assembly elections, the JMM, Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) alliance triumphed over the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), winning 47 seats in the 81-member assembly. Moreover, four other MLAs - three from the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) [JVM(P] and one from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) [CPI(ML)] - also lent their support to the alliance, pushing up the total support from legislators to more than 50. This is being considered a first for Jharkhand - where a government having the support of more than 50 legislators was formed in the state.
