Raghubar Das to take oath as Jharkhand CM today; PM Modi to attend

Ranchi: Veteran BJP leader Raghubar Das will on Sunday take oath as Jharkhand's first non-tribal chief minister.

Das, 60 and a five-time legislator from East Jamshedpur, will be the 10th chief minister of Jharkhand. He will take oath at 11 am.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under whose leadership BJP fought the Assembly elections in Jharkhand, will attend the swearing-in ceremony of Chief Minister-designate Das.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the swearing-in ceremony at Birsa Munda Football Stadium tomorrow (Sunday)," Jharkhand Home Secretary NN Pandey said on Saturday.

He said Chief Ministers of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh - Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Raman Singh respectively - will also be present for the ceremony.

The ceremony is expected to draw tens of thousands of supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ally, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).

After getting elected as the party legislature leader, Das and AJSU leaders met Governor Syed Ahmad at Raj Bhawan on Friday and staked claim to form the government. 

The AJSU said it would be part of the BJP government.

Although tribals make up only 27 percent of Jharkhand's population, the state has always had a tribal chief minister. Das will break the cycle.

Das, who became a BJP national vice president in August, has been twice the BJP president in Jharkhand. He became the deputy chief minister in the Shibu Soren government after the 2009 Assembly Elections.

"Development of Jharkhand is my priority. All sections, including tribals, minorities and others, are on the development agenda," he told the media after being elected the BJP legislature party leader.

The BJP and AJSU won a simple majority in the 81-member house. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 37 seats while the AJSU won five seats.

Born on December 18, 1954 in Jamshedpur, Das has been with the BJP since 1980, the year the party was formed.

A law graduate, Das belongs to a large family and has three brothers and three sisters. He married Rukmani Devi and has a son and a daughter.

He was elected as a legislator for the first time in 1995 from Jamshedpur East to the then Bihar State Assembly.

When Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar in 2000, he became labour minister in Babulal Marandi's government. He was a minister in Arjun Munda's government too.

(With agency inputs)