Ranchi, Dec 28 (IANS) Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief Shibu Soren, who is set to form the government in Jharkhand with support from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU), Monday left Ranchi for Mumbai to meet BJP president Nitin Gadkari.
“Soren left for Mumbai along with AJSU chief Sudesh Mahto, BJP state president Raghubar Das and senior BJP leader C.P. Singh by a chartered plane,” Supriyo Bhattacharya, general secretary of JMM, told IANS.

Soren was accompanied by his son Hemant. Soren will be sworn as Jharkhand chief minister for the third time Wednesday at the Morabadi ground here at 2 p.m.

JMM sources said that Soren is likely to discuss the formation of the state cabinet with Gadkari. Officially, however, JMM leaders maintained that it was just a courtesy meeting.

Soren had Saturday staked claim to forming the government with a list of 45 legislators supporting him in the 81-member house.

He is being supported by the BJP, AJSU, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and two independent legislators. The BJP and JMM have 18 legislators each, AJSU has five and JD-U has two.

As per their understanding, BJP will have four ministers, JMM and AJSU three each and JD-U one. In Jharkhand, there can be a maximum 12 ministers including the chief minister.

Soren is likely to return to the state capital by Monday evening.