With numbers on his side, Jharkhand CM Raghubar ignores the Constitution

Jharkhand can have a maximum of 12 ministers, including the chief minister. But, this is also the minimum number as well according to Article 164 of the Constitution that makes it incumbent upon the chief minister of a state to retain 15 per cent of the total strength of the house or a minimum of 12 ministers in the Cabinet - which so ever is applicable.

But when Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das expanded his Cabinet on Thursday by inducting six new ministers - the four BJP men and the other two from the group of six party hoppers who recently defected to the BJP from Babulal Marandi's Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) - he still left one berth vacant.

While it seems a politically prudent move, as the vacancy will let Raghubar induct anyone whenever he decides, he may have knowingly or otherwise ignored the constitutional provisions, which stipulate that the number of ministers, including the chief minister, will not be less than 12. Raghubar Das seems to have the luck by his side, as no one has so far questioned him about his decision of not having the minimum 12 ministers in his Cabinet. Jharkhand has already seen at least two examples in the past when as many as two governors officially told the chief minister - it was Arjun Munda on both occasions- to complete the Cabinet formation exercise or face consequences.

In September 2010, the then Jharkhand governor MOH Farook had questioned then chief minister Arjun Munda for the delay in Cabinet expansion. Munda had to induct nine more ministers to complete his Cabinet a week later.

In August 2004, the then governor Ved Marwah had sent alarm bells ringing when he issued a veiled warning to the then chief minister Arjun Munda, hinting that his government can be dissolved, as the number of ministers in his Cabinet fell short of requisite numbers.

Munda, who then had less than the prescribed 12 ministers in his Cabinet, had to hastily induct Devdayal Kushwaha and Satyanand Bhokta in his ministry shortly after Raj Bhavan's warning.

The apparent reason for Raghubar Das' reprieve is that the said article does not mention any timeline or a deadline under which a CM needs to act and fill the Cabinet berths. "However, the very fact that the CM is constitutionally required to have no less than 12 ministers, makes it incumbent upon Das to do so as soon as possible," said a senior officer in Jharkhand Government.

The BJP strategist also fail to explain the rationality of keeping one ministerial berth vacant when with 43 BJP MLAs and five AJSU lawmakers in the 82-member Jharkhand House, Raghubar Das does not have to bother about having sufficient numbers by his side - an issue that troubled all his predecessors.

That Raghubar Das was assured about his government is clear from the fact that all the six lawmakers, who were administered oath by governor Syed Ahmed at the Raj Bhavan premises, were BJP members.

Clearly, Raghubar has not offered any more ministerial positions to alliance partner, the AJSU party, which has five MLAs in the assembly. Prior to the recent defection of six JVM MLAs to the BJP, Raghubar's government depended upon the AJSU for its survival.

Raghubar, who took over as Jharkhand CM on December 28, had kept the Cabinet expansion on hold till he succeeded in splitting Babulal Marandi's eight-MLA party by bringing over six MLAs to the BJP. This helped the BJP secure a simple majority all on its own.

Sudesh Mahto's AJSU party, which already has a minister in Chandra Prakash Choudhary, has been constantly asking for one more ministerial berth. Raghubar, however, does not seem inclined to accommodate one more AJSU man in his Cabinet now. Saryu Rai, Ramchandra Chandravanshi, Raj Paliwal, Neera Yadav, Randhir Singh and Amar Bauri are the new ministers who were sworn in on Thursday.