"Everything Is Absolutely Fine": Champai Soren On Rift Over Jharkhand Cabinet Expansion

The JMM-led alliance in Jharkhand is "strong" and there is no threat to the coalition government in the state, Chief Minister Champai Soren said on Sunday, amid reports of resentment brewing among a section of Congress legislators over the induction of four party MLAs as ministers.

Mr Soren, who is in the national capital, made the remarks before meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.

After meeting Mr Kharge, he told reporters that it was a courtesy meeting with the Congress president after taking charge as the chief minister.

On a section of Congress MLAs being disgruntled over the recent cabinet formation, Mr Soren said it was the internal matter of the Congress.

Earlier in the morning, Mr Soren said, "There's no issue, our alliance is strong."

On being asked about disgruntled Congress MLAs reaching Delhi, he had told reporters, "This is an internal matter of the Congress, they will resolve it. I have nothing to say about that. There is no conflict between the JMM and Congress, and everything is absolutely fine."

As many as 12 MLAs of the Congress have threatened to boycott the upcoming state assembly session from February 23 and head to Jaipur if the ministers are not replaced with new faces.

The JMM-led alliance in the state has 47 MLAs (JMM-29, Congress-17 and one RJD) in the 81-member assembly.

Unhappy with the Congress' decision to give ministerial berths to Alamgir Alam, Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh again, the disgruntled section of Congress legislators went into a huddle Saturday at a Ranchi hotel, where JMM's new minister Basant Soren, the youngest son of party supremo Shibu Soren, reached to persuade them to change their decision.

"There is no confusion...we are all united," Basant Soren said after meeting the MLAs.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)