Ranchi/New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS): Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday and extended a formal invitation for the swearing-in ceremony of his government, which is scheduled to take place in Ranchi on November 28.
Hemant Soren was accompanied by his wife Kalpana Soren, the newly elected MLA from the Gandey constituency.
Prime Minister Modi congratulated Hemant and Kalpana Soren on their electoral success and shared pictures of the meeting on X.
Earlier, Hemant Soren also met Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and party President Mallikarjun Kharge, inviting them to the ceremony.
The swearing-in ceremony is set to take place at Morabadi Ground, Ranchi, on November 28 at 4 p.m. Along with the Chief Minister, several other ministers are expected to take the oath. Hemant Soren was unanimously elected as the leader of the INDIA bloc in the state on Sunday.
A JMM spokesperson said that invitations have been sent to various prominent political figures, including RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, Bihar's Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, AAP Convener Arvind Kejriwal, CPI-ML leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, and the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The results of the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly elections, announced on November 23, gave the Hemant Soren-led JMM-Congress-RJD alliance a resounding victory with 56 seats. The JMM won 34, the Congress 16, the RJD 4, and the CPI-ML 2 seats. This marks the first time a government in Jharkhand has secured a two-thirds majority.
Hemant Soren will make history as the first leader to be sworn in as Jharkhand's Chief Minister four times. He first took oath on July 13, 2013, leading a Congress-RJD-supported government until December 2014.
He returned as CM on December 29, 2019, but had to resign after his arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on January 31, 2024. After his release on bail, he was sworn in for the third time on July 4, 2024.
Earlier, his father Shibu Soren, and BJP’s Arjun Munda have each served three terms as Jharkhand Chief Minister.