Hemant Soren takes oath as Barhait representative

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday took oath as the representative of Barhait constituency, one of the two seats that the JMM leader won in the just-concluded assembly elections.

Soren has decided to quit the Dumka seat, a senior official of the Jharkhand Assembly Secretariat told PTI.

"The chief minister had given in writing to the pro-tem speaker that he will take oath as a representative of Barhait," he said.

Pro-tem Speaker Stephen Marandi administered the oath to Soren as a member of the 81-member House on the first day of the three-day session.

Soren had won from the Barhait seat in the 2014 assembly polls, too, but lost from Dumka.

Three of his ministers -- Alamgir Alam, Rameshwar Oraon (both from Congress) and Satyanand Bhokta (RJD) also took oath.

The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance had stormed to power in Jharkhand after a five-year hiatus, which saw the BJP-led Raghubar Das government complete its full term, a first in the state's history.

Soren, the son of legendary tribal leader Shibu Soren, was sworn-in as the chief minister last month.

The alliance won 47 seats against the BJP which, ploughing a lonely furrow, could win only 25 seats. The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha won 30 seats and emerged as the single largest party. The Congress clinched 16 and Lalu Prasad's RJD one.

Some of the members on Monday took oath in Maithili, Angika, Santhali, Ho and other dialects of Jharkhand, besides Hindi.

BJP's Anant Kumar Ojha, Raj Sinha and Biranchi Narayan took oath in Sanskrit.

The House was adjourned till Tuesday following the oath-taking ceremony.

The Jharkhand Assembly, which has always nominated one Anglo-Indian member since 2000, will not have representation from the community for the first time.

The development comes after revocation of the provision for nominating members from the community to Lok Sabha and state legislatures.