With Congress president Sonia Gandhi and RJD chief Lalu Prasad backing him along with nine Independent legislators including former Deputy CM Stephen Marandi and caretaker Chief Minister Madhu Koda, doing a turnabout by vowing to support rather than oppose him, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha president Shibu Soren will be sworn in as the sixth Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Wednesday. It will be his second stint as CM in three years.

Earlier on Monday, Soren, accompanied by Lalu, Koda and Marandi, met Governor Syed Sibtey Razi and staked claim to form the Government. Razi then invited Soren to form a government and prove his majority in the Assembly on or before September 1.

In his letter of invitation to Soren, Governor Razi said he had taken this decision after scrutinising the claims incorporated in the list handed over to him by the chief ministerial candidate. Soren handed over a list of 42 MLAs (Congress 9, RJD 7,JMM 17, Forward Bloc 2, Nationalist Congress Party 1 and Independent 9) who had committed to support him.

Six Independents—Enos Ekka, Bandhu Tirkey, Joba Manjhi, Kamlesh Singh, Harinarain Rai and Bhanu Pratap Choudhary—turned around after the Union Railway Minister telephonically contacted each of them and Soren met Shahi at his official residence on Sunday evening.

In turn, Shahi on behalf of six other Independents, minus Marandi and Koda, set 12 demands including panchayat polls in non-scheduled areas of the state, transfer of forest land to forest dwellers as per the Forest Act and the identification and rehabilitation of Jharkhand agitationists. Once Soren gave his verbal promise to fulfil these demands, they announced support to him on Sunday night.

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