Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das cleans up a locality in central Ranchi.
On his way to his residence after the oath ceremony at Ranchi's Birsa Munda Football stadium, Jharkhand's new Chief Minister Raghubar Das made an unscheduled stop at Kantatoli intersection at the city centre. And there, in a bylane, he picked up a broom to kick off his own cleanliness mission.
His aides and senior officials who were in his entourage also followed his example. After the 15-minute cleaning session, he accepted sweets from the assembled locals. (Read:
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Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Clean India campaign, he said he would make an effort to clean up the state. "The programmes initiated by the Prime Minister would be taken up by the state government and I will do my best to give the state good governance," Mr Das said.
Mr Das is the state's first non-tribal chief minister. He is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was picked as the state party vice-president by BJP chief Amit Shah.(Read:
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The Prime Minister and Mr Shah, who were to attend today's function, could not leave Delhi due to the thick fog, and the 2.6 degrees Celsius temperature, the lowest in five years.
The BJP has won 42 of the 81 assembly seats in the recently-concluded assembly elections in the state. In the 14 years since its formation, Jharkhand had nine governments and three stints of President's Rule.
Today, four cabinet ministers were sworn in along with Mr Das. They included Ranchi legislator Nilkanth Singh Munda, former speaker Chandreswar Prasad Singh, Louis Marandi, who defeated Hemant Soren from Dumka, and BJP's ally All Jharkhand Students' Union or AJSU's Chandraprakash Choudhary.