Jharkhand cabinet expansion: Clueless Mir kept seeing his phone

New Delhi: Congress general secretary Ghulam Ahmed Mir had to face some embarrassing moments ahead of the cabinet in Jharkhand. He had absolutely no clue of who from the Congress are going to be inducted in the state cabinet as Congress general secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal was directly communicating with Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren. 

As the Congress list was awaited, Mir was seen anxiously and repeatedly looking at his phone hoping to receive the names from Venugopal. Mir had no clue till he got to know that Venugopal had already shared the names with Soren. 

Old timers recall that this had never happened in the Congress in the past.

According to a senior leader, late Ahmed Patel would always take the general secretary in-charge of any state in confidence and never undermine his or her position.

Venugopal's style of functioning has come under severe criticism but due to his closeness with Rahul Gandhi nobody dares to challenge his authority. 

It was on Thursday that Soren expanded his Cabinet with 11 ministers taking oath. 

While six belong to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), four are from the Congress and one is from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

From the Congress, Mahgama legislator Deepika Pandey Singh, Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari, Chhatrapur MLA Radhakrishna Kishore, and Mandar legislator Shilpi Neha Tirkey became the ministers. 

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'Mind your own business'

A BJP leader from Jharkhand, known for his close links with the corporate world, recently met home minister Amit Shah with a plea to make one of the party legislators in Haryana a minister in the Nayab Singh Saini's government. Shah apparently rebuked the leader, insisting that making a minister was not his responsibility and that he should focus on his job. The BJP leader had to make a hasty retreat. 

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