Ranchi: At long last Chief Minister Raghubar Das has expanded his cabinet by inducting six ministers.
Governor Syed Ahmed administered the oath of office and secrecy to six cabinet ministers including Saryu Roy, Ram Chandra Chandravanshi, Raj Paliwar, Neera Yadav, Amar Kumar Bauri and Randhir Kumar Singh.
The oath taking ceremony was held at Birsa Mandap Udyan in Raj Bhavan. Present on the occasion among others were Chief Minister Raghubar Das, CP Singh, Neelkanth Singh Munda, Chandra Praksh Choudhary, all ministers, Dr Ravindra Rai, State BJP president, AJSU party chief Sudesh Kumar Mahato, MLA Anant Ojha, Navin Jaisawal, chief secretary, Rajiv Gauba, DGP, Rajiv Kumar, and additional chief secretary of department of Home, NN Pandey.
Chief Minister Raghubar Das along with four of the cabinet ministers had taken oath on December 28, 2014. But the next phase of cabinet expansion got delayed as the BJP was waiting for the dissident JVM (P) legislators to join the party.
And as was expected two legislators from JVM (P) Amar Kumar Bauri and Randhir Kumar Singh have been allotted ministerial berths in the present cabinet. The rest four who secured ministerial berths are the BJP legislators who won elections on BJP tickets.
Now one ministerial berth has been kept vacant to accommodate a suitable candidate.
On the other hand rumors are doing the rounds that sections within BJP and AJSU are unhappy about cabinet expansion. Non-inclusion of defected JVM (P) legislators Navin Jaisawal and Janki Prasad Yadav in the cabinet has raised many questions.
While the AJSU under pre-poll alliance is demanding two cabinet seats, Navin Jaisawal and Janki Prasad Yadav who had played a key-role in defection were also expecting cabinet berths. It is being said that Navin Jaisawal had been left out owing to objections raised by AJSU while name of BJP�s Neera Yadav was considered at the last minute in place of Janki Prasad Yadav.
A section within BJP has been reported unhappy with present cabinet expansion, but none came out open on the issue because of party discipline.
Now when the much-awaited cabinet expansion is done opposition party lost another ground to take on Raghubar Das led government.