By IANS
Ranchi : Former central minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren has expressed his unhappiness at being left out of the union cabinet, which was reshuffled and expanded Sunday.
“I was not given place in the central cabinet despite assurances. I was informed that I would be inducted in the cabinet expansion but my name was missing in the list,” Soren told reporters in Bokaro Monday.
Soren was considered a strong candidate for a berth in the central cabinet. At present JMM, part of the running United Progressive Alliance (UPA), has no representative in the cabinet.
His supporters too were disappointed.
“JMM should have been given a place in the cabinet by inducting Shibu Soren. The Delhi High Court has acquitted him in the Shashinath Jha murder case. Soren has also been acquitted in the three-decade-old Chirudih massacre case. The Congress is playing foul by not inducting him,” a senior JMM leader told IANS on condition of anonymity.
“The Congress inducted its Lok Sabha MP from Jharkhand, Rameshwar Oraon, to improve its position among the tribal people,” he added.
Soren had to quit as coal minister in October 2006 after a Delhi court awarded life imprisonment to him in the case relating to the murder of his secretary Shashinath Jha.
Earlier, he had to step down as minister in July 2004 when a non-bailable warrant was issued against him in the Chirudih massacre case. He had quit the central cabinet on his own March 2005 when he was made Jharkhand chief minister for seven days.