Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arjun Munda was on Saturday sworn in as Chief Minister of Jharkhand for the third time at the Raj Bhavan here while Hemant Soren and Sudesh Mahto were sworn in as Deputy Chief Ministers.
Sources said senior leader L.K. Advani and party president Nitin Gadkari, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley did not attend the event. The ceremony started at 11.55 a.m., considered more auspicious than the earlier scheduled time.
Mr. Munda has the support of 45 MLAs in the 81-member Assembly.
BJP leader Rajnath Singh, spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, Mr. Shibu Soren and his wife Rupi attended the ceremony.
The BJP had withdrawn support to the Shibu Soren government in May and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief was forced to resign on May 30, which led to the President's rule on June.
