Munda gets new set of ministers with eye on vote

Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda on Wednesday expanded his Cabinet and effected a reshuffle, causing heartburn among a section of his own partymen. With this expansion, the strength of the Munda ministry has gone up from 12 to 13.

The reshuffle comes six months before the state goes to polls in February, and Munda, said sources, selected the new team carefully with an eye on the votebank of the backward community. Satyanand Bhokta, BJP MLA from Chatra (SC) constituency, who was sworn in as a minister, is a Dalit. Sudershan Bhagat, State Welfare Minister, belongs to the ST category and Devi Dayal Kushwaha to the Backward Caste. Munda, while talking to mediapersons after the swearing-in ceremony, admitted that the backward community was under-represented in his ministry.

Meanwhile, Munda’s decision has left Yamuna Singh, who was stripped of the Forest portfolio, sulking. Sources said Singh was dropped because ‘‘his performance was mired in controversy and his son was facing the charge of teasing and assaulting a girl’’.