Mamata Banerjee front-&-center before Congress arrives at Hemant Soren's swearing-in

Hemant Soren will take oath as the 11th Chief Minister of Jharkhand in Ranchi on Sunday at Morabadi Ground at 2 pm. His party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), along with ally Congress, won a clear majority in the state elections earlier this week. He has termed the event as "Sankalp Diwas" of an era of new Jharkhand, says an official press release. On Saturday, Soren also met Mamata Banerjee who is in town to attend the swearing-in ceremony. 

Governor Droupadi Murmu will administer the oath of office and secrecy to Soren. Leaders across the political spectrum will be attending the event and it is expected to turn into a show of opposition unity. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, former President Pranab Mukherjee, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and other national and regional leaders from across the political spectrum have confirmed their presence for the oath-taking ceremony.

CMs of five states to attend the swearing-in ceremony

Chief Ministers of as many as five states have also confirmed their presence. They are West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has been invited to the event but on behalf of him, party MP Sanjay Singh will attend the ceremony. The other leaders who are likely to be present on the occasion include HD Kumaraswamy, KC Venugopal, N Chandrababu Naidu, Harish Rawat, DMK MP Kanimozhi, TR Balu, Sharad Yadav, and Ahmed Patel. 

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Jharkhand Assembly polls

JMM fought the Assembly elections in alliance with the Congress party and Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janta Dal (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 recently concluded Assembly polls. The BJP won only 25 seats, failing to touch the halfway mark in the 81-seat Assembly. Hemant Soren who had contested from both Dumka and Barhait, like 2014, won both seats. Polling was held in 5 phases on November 30, December 7, 12, 16, 20 and results were declared on December 23.

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(with ANI inputs)