Internal tensions within the Congress party came to the surface on Saturday after the Cabinet expansion of the Champai Soren government when legislators in Jharkhand threatened to boycott the upcoming Budget sessions if serving Ministers from their party were not replaced with new faces.
On Friday, eight MLAs were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers; three of them — Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh — were from the Congress. One Congress MLA, Alamgir Alam, had already taken oath with the Chief Minister on February 2.
Miffed over the issue, the rebel Congress MLAs gathered at a private hotel in Ranchi to discuss further strategies. The MLAs present at the hotel were Irfan Ansari, Umashankar Akela, Deepika Pandey Singh, Anup Singh, Sona Ram Sinku, Bhushan Bada, Rajesh Kachchap and Amba Prasad.
