NEW DELHI, 28 November 2004 — With an eye on Jharkhand assembly elections in February, the six-month old Congress led-UPA government yesterday re-inducted Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren into the Cabinet. Congress is likely to align with the JMM against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Jharkhand.
Justifying Soren’s return, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the reason why he left the government does not exist any more.
“If the opposition wants to raise any issue, the government will have no hesitation in discussing it and it should be debated in Parliament,” he said.
Holding his re-induction in the ministry as logical, JMM chief Soren said: “Everything that is done is for success in the elections. Why would anybody want to lose?
“We have removed the BJP, we shall remove their influence as well,” the maveric Jharkhand leader said.
Soren resigned from the Cabinet as coal minister on July 24 after a Jharkhand Court issued non-bailable warrant against him in a 1975 massacre case. After securing “conditional” bail, Soren began demanding his portfolio back.
Soren was administered the oath of office and secrecy by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at a brief ceremony yesterday at the Ashok Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhawan. The prime minister, a few of his Cabinet colleagues and senior civil and military officials were present at the ceremony.
Soren has been re-inducted as the coal minister.
Soren’s re-induction has taken place just a day before the premier leaves for Laos to attend the India-ASEAN Summit.
The winter session of Parliament begins Dec. 1.
Not content with just his re-induction in the ministry, Soren has demanded that his party should be given another ministry. “As far as the MoS is concerned, we shall get it. Maybe not now, perhaps after the winter session, but it is our right,” Soren said.
A minor reshuffle in the Cabinet was also effected. Telangana Rashtriya Samiti leader K. Chandrashekhar Rao was made the new labor and employment minister, replacing Sis Ram Ola.
Rao has been in the Cabinet without a portfolio since UPA government assumed power in May. He has been demanding a separate state for Telangana by breaking up Andhra Pradesh.
Ola was made the mines minister.
The BJP criticized Soren’s return to the Cabinet. “This (Soren’s return) only reaffirms that being tainted is no disqualification for being inducted in this government,” BJP General Secretary and spokesman Arun Jaitley said. “The moral fabric of this government is suspect,” he added.
