Modi unable to travel to Ranchi for oath taking ceremony
Ranchi/Newdelhi:BJP leader Raghubar Das was on Sunday sworn-in as the new Chief Minister of Jharkhand, becoming the first non-tribal leader to rule the state.
Governor Syed Ahmed administered the oath of office and secrecy to Das at the Birsa Munda Football Stadium here. Nilkanth Singh Munda, Chandreswar Prasad Singh, Louis Marandi (all BJP) and Chandraprakash Chou-dhary were also sworn-in as cabinet ministers.
Jharkhand has a maximum limit of 12 ministers, including the chief minister. Dense fog in New Delhi led Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah to cancel their visit to Jharkhand to attend the ceremony.
Das became the tenth chief minister after Babulal Marandi (once), Arjun Munda (thrice), Shibu Soren (thrice), Madhu Koda (once) and Hemant Soren (once) of Jharkhand governments in the 14 years of its creation. After being elected as the BJP’s legislature party leader, Das had staked claim to form government on December 26 at the head of BJP-Asju alliance. Das joined the BJP as a worker and then gradually rose through the party ranks before getting the first break when he was nominated as party candidate from Jamshedpur (East) in the 1995 Assembly elections.He went on to win the seat five times.
He became a minister for the first time after the creation of Jharkhand in the Babulal Marandi govern-ment and got berths in the subsequent two govern-ments led by Arjun Munda before becoming the deputy chief minister in the Shibu Soren-led government in 2009. He held portfolios of finance, labour and urban development during his stint as cabinet minister.
Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Minister of State for Rural Development Upendra Kushwaha, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Sudarshan Bhagat were present at the swearing-in ceremony.
Chhatisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, former Jharkhand chief ministers Arjun Munda and Hemant Soren were also present at the function with a sizable crowd turning out to witness the ceremony.
Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Ajsu party President and former Deputy Chief Minister Sudesh Mahto, BJP’s state unit president Ravindra Rai were among several other dignitaries who attended the event.
Dense fog here on Friday forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to cancel their visit to Jharkhand to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister-designate Raghuvar Das.
“Was to travel to Jharkhand to attend the oath taking ceremony of Shri Raghubar Das but am unable to do so due to weather conditions,” the Prime Minister tweeted. “I would like to congratulate Shri Raghubar Das on taking over as Jharkhand CM & convey my best wishes to him,” he said.
BJP chief Amit Shah was also to travel but could not travel to Ranchi for the swearing-in ceremony due to dense fog in Delhi, BJP media in-charge Shrikant Sharma said In another tweet, Modi said, “People of Jharkhand voted for stability. I congratulate them & pray that Jharkhand scales new heights of progress in the coming years,” he said.(PTI)