Cabinet expansion in Jharkhand seems to have stirred a hornets’ nest for the Champai Soren government with 12 Congress legislators openly forming a dissidents’ front against the senior Congress leadership and JMM MLA Baidyanath Ram threatening rebellious action if he was not included in the Cabinet soon.
After the new government was formed in Jharkhand under the leadership of Champai Soren, Congress legislators were hoping that this time there would be a change in ministerial faces and others would be given a chance. However, the Congress High Command did not take a risk and repeated the same old faces for ministerial positions. Assembly elections are due in December 2024 in Jharkhand.
On February 16 when the same names were repeated by Congress for swearing in ceremony, 12 legislators opened a front against the party leadership and locked themselves in a room at the Ranchi circuit house. They even refused to attend the swearing-in ceremony. State Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir and party chief in State Rajesh Thakur rushed to convince the legislators, who handed over a letter of demands to Thakur mentioning their terms and conditions to attend the oath ceremony at Raj Bhawan.
The drama continued even after the swearing-in ceremony when the legislators went to the official residence of the JPCC president at night and asked him to convey their reservations before the party's high command.
“We have conveyed our reservations before the state president. You all are aware that we were expecting a change in the ministerial faces this time. The ministers from Congress quota have not even listened to party MLAs and their recommendations in the last four years. Now, how will we face the people of our constituency? People’s basic problems are ignored by the ministers,” said Congress legislator Deepika Pandey Singh.
It is being said that the dissident Congress legislators will go to Delhi today to meet senior party leaders and decide their next course of action. Sources said that they may move to Jaipur from Delhi and not attend the upcoming Budget Session of the Assembly if their demands are not met.
On the other hand, JMM’s Latehar Legislative Assembly representative Baidyanath Ram was first included in the list of legislators going to take oath during the swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhawan on February 16, but when he was en route to Raj Bhawan for the ceremony his name was dropped from the list due to the 12 Congress MLAs’ protest. Ram straightaway went to the Chief Minister’s office and registered his protest asking senior party functionaries in what conditions he was dropped from the list.
Ram, who could have become the lone face of the Scheduled Caste community in the government, has also warned the party of adverse consequences if he is not inducted into the government soon. He said that dropping his name at the last minute was not only an insult to him as a legislator but also an insult to the whole SC community in the state.
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