Munda expands ministry from 5 to 25

A week after he took oath replacing Babulal Marandi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda today expanded his ministry, taking it from five t...

A week after he took oath replacing Babulal Marandi, Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda today expanded his ministry, taking it from five to 25.

Among them, 23 hold cabinet rank and two are ministers of state. This is one more than the strength of the Marandi ministry, which had 16 members holding cabinet rank and 10 ministers of state.

The jump in the cabinet-rank ministers from 16 to 23 is a direct fallout of the NDA’s compulsion to accommodate four ‘‘rebels’’, who had played a key role in toppling the Marandi government but were won over at the last minute to support Munda. All of them — the JD(U)’s Baidhnath Ram, Samata Party’s Jaleshwar Mahato, Ramesh Singh Munda and Baccha Singh — were ministers of state in the Marandi ministry and have now been given cabinet rank. They revolted against Marandi along with two other ministers — Lalchand Mahato and Madhu Singh.

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Apart from the above four, Ravinder Rai, Dinesh Sadangi and Madhu Koda who were ministers of state in the Marandi ministry are also cabinet ministers now.

The other beneficiary is Madhav Lal Singh, an Independent who earlier held the post of Chairman, 20-point Programme, who is now a minister with cabinet rank. Munda is yet to allocate their portfolios.

The new ministers were sworn in at a function held inside Raj Bhavan this afternoon, attended by 600-odd VIPs including Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari, who was the top contender for the CM’s post after Marandi was toppled. Marandi, not surprisingly, did not attend. Neither did any of the opposition MLAs, including Leader of the Opposition Stephen Marandi.