Jharkhand CM Soren, ministers take oath as members of Legislative Assembly

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday took oath as a member of the Jharkhand Assembly on the first day of the four-day session of the House.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Radhakrishna Kishore, Revenue and Land Reforms Minister Deepak Birua and Labour Minister Sanjay Prasad Yadav were among the ministers in the Hemant Soren cabinet who also took oath as members of the assembly.

The CM and the ministers were among 80 elected representatives who were administered the oath as MLAs by the assembly's pro-tem Speaker Stephen Marandi soon after the proceedings of the House began at 11 am.

The House was adjourned till 11 am on Tuesday after the oath-taking ceremony.

"All MLAs and ministers took oath today. We will move for next proceedings tomorrow," the CM later told reporters.

The Speaker's election is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, an assembly official said.

Kishore said Nala MLA Rabindra Nath Mahato is likely to be elected as Speaker of the House unopposed as all members, including those of the BJP, have given their consent for it.

The four-day session will conclude on December 12. Besides Speaker's election, governor's address, presentation of the second supplementary budget and debate on the governor's speech are also scheduled during the session, the official said.

Hemant Soren took oath as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand in a grand ceremony here on November 28, while 11 MLAs took oath as state ministers on December 5.

The JMM-led alliance on November 23 stormed to power in Jharkhand for the second time in a row, securing 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, while the BJP-headed NDA managed 24.