PM Modi, Pranab Mukherjee Among Political Leaders Invited to Hemant Soren's Swearing-in on Dec 29

Ranchi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, former president Pranab Mukherjee, chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Uddhav Thackeray, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi are among those invited to Jharkhand chief minister-designate Hemant Sorens swearing-in ceremony here on December 29.

Jharkhand caretaker Chief Minister Raghubar Das said that he will attend the swearing-in ceremony after Soren called Das over the phone and invited him to attend his swearing-in ceremony.

The others invited to the programme to be held at the sprawling Mohrabadi grounds here are Congress leader P Chidambaram, Ahmed Patel, NCP chief Sharad Yadav, SP leader Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati, JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said here on Friday.

Chief ministers of Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh Madhya Pradesh and Delhi Ashok Gehlot, Bhupesh Baghel, Kamalnath and Arvind Kejriwal respectively have been invited to grace the historic occasion, he said.

Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson, Harivansh is also in the long list of invitees as is the outgoing chief minister Raghubar Das, Bhattacharya said that several leaders have already given their consent to attend the swearing-in ceremony at 2 pm on December 29 at Mohrabadi ground here.

Modi has, however, expressed his inability to attend the ceremony due to his busy schedule The Prime Minister extended good wishes and assured Hemant Sorenji that he will visit Jharkhand when he gets time. We will welcome him, Bhattacharya told a press conference here.

He said that invitation to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been sent and we expect consent from him. The other political party leaders who have been

invited are RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav, ex-MP Sharad Yadav, DMK president M K Stalin, former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswami, CPI leader Kanaiha Kumar, former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, MP T R Balu, former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat, DMK MP Kanimojhi, Bihar minister Abdul Bari Siddique and Odisha PCC president Niranjan Patnaik, the JMM leader said.

He said captains and stalwarts from the fields of industry, sports, art, literature and every section of the society will be present to witness the "historic occasion"

The party has appealed to the people of Jharkhand to attend the ceremony as it would be a happy sight of democracy.

Former chief minister and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) president Babulal Marandi, NCP MLA Kamlesh Singh and CPI (ML-Liberation) MLA Vinod Kumar Singh have also been invited for the ceremony, he said.

The JVM-P and the CPI-ML-Liberation have extended support to the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition, which stormed to power after five years, dethroning the BJP in the just concluded assembly elections to the 81-member assembly.