CM Hemant Soren wins trust vote in Jharkhand assembly

Hemant Soren was sworn in as Jharkhand chief minister on July 4, a day after Champai Soren stepped down from the post.

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who was sworn in last week, won the trust vote in the state assembly on Monday, July 8, with a comfortable majority of 45 MLAs in his favour.

Hemant Soren took oath as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, at Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on Thursday(ANI)

Following this, the Hemant Soren cabinet will be expanding the Cabinet, Congress leader and Poreyahat MLA Pradeep Yadav told the media.

The JMM alliance currently has 45 MLAs—27 from JMM, 17 from Congress, and one from RJD—in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly. Meanwhile, the BJP has a total of 24 MLAs.

After the Lok Sabha elections, the number of MLAs in the Jharkhand assembly was reduced as some became MPs, while others either resigned or were expelled. The current strength of the 81-member Jharkhand assembly is 76. The total strength of the house has also decreased, reducing the half-way mark to 38.

Soren was sworn in as Jharkhand chief minister on July 4, a day after Champai Soren stepped down from the post months ahead of the assembly election. “Today is July 4. On Jan 31, from the same place, I conveyed a message to you all on how the opposition has conspired against me. They were successful. For five months, they tried to keep me inside the jail by different means. We took the legal path, and people supported us,” Soren had said before taking the oath.

This came just a few days after Hemant was released on bail in money laundering charges in connection with an alleged land racket in the state capital. He was the second chief minister to be arrested by the federal agency barely months before the Lok Sabha elections on January 31.

Minutes before his arrest, Hemant resigned as the chief minister and passed on the baton to Champai Soren. Champai, a loyalist of Hemant and a close associate of the former Jharkhand CM's father Shibu Soren, took charge as the CM on February 2.

While Hemant was in jail, his party, JMM, won three Lok Sabha seats - two more than its tally in 2019.

In 2019, JMM fought the assembly elections in alliance with the Congress and RJD and got a comfortable majority with forty-seven seats in the 81-member house. JMM won 30 seats, while Congress and RJD secured 16 and one seat, respectively, in the state elections.

(With inputs from agencies)