Hemant Soren invites Sonia, Rahul for swearing-in

Fresh from a massive election win, Jharkhand Chief Minister-designate Hemant Soren on Wednesday met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her predecessor Rahul Gandhi to invite them for his swearing-in ceremony in Ranchi on Sunday.

The 44-year-old Soren, who unseated BJP's Raghubar Das-led government, said Rahul has agreed to attend the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday while Sonia has assured him of her presence.

If Sonia travels to Ranchi for the inaugural of the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government, it would be the second such instance after here presence at the swearing-in of H D Kumaraswamy as Karnataka chief minister last year.

Neither Sonia nor Rahul showed similar courtesies to the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government that was sworn-in on November 28 in Mumbai with Sena President Uddhav Thackeray as the chief minister.

“I will also invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for the swearing-in ceremony,” Soren told reporters after meeting the Gandhis.

Soren was accompanied by Congress leaders KC Venugopal and R P N Singh, the party's in-charge for Jharkhand.

Soren helmed three-party alliance stormed to power in Jharkhand on Monday, ousting the BJP from power in the second state after the saffron party's massive victory in the Lok Sabha elections.

JMM-Congress-RJD coalition won bagged 47 seats in the 81-member Jharkhand assembly with JMM emerging victorious on 30 seats, Congress 16 and RJD one. Babulal Marandi-led JVM (P), which won three seats, has declared “unconditional support” to Soren to form a government.

Congress credits its performance in Jharkhand to the decentralisation of the decision-making process in the state and keeping the campaign strictly to local issues and not joining in the BJP on national issues such as Kashmir, Article 370 and Ram Temple.