Senior BJP leader Raghubar Das will take over as Chief Minister of Jharkhand today. Governor Sayyed Ahmed will administer him the oath of office and secrecy at the Morhabadi ground in Ranchi at 11 AM. The 59-year-old BJP leader, will be the first non-tribal Chief Minister of the state. BJP MLAs CP Singh, Neelkanth Singh Munda and Louis Marandi and AJSU MLA Chandra Prakash Choudhri will also take oath as Ministers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will attend the swearing in ceremony. Mr. Das yesterday met the BJP President in New Delhi and discussed the government formation. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Das said, his priority will be to make Jharkhand corruption free by ensuring good governance.

Meanwhile, with almost three weeks left for the expiry of deadline for the formation of new government in Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) is yet to respond to the unconditional support offered by Congress and National Conference. The party has held initial round of talks with BJP. Though the deadline for the formation of next government is the 17th of January, Governor NN Vohra has written letters to PDP and BJP, inviting them to negotiate and find out ways to end the deadlock.

BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav has said that talks are going on with other parties. He, however, did not disclose name of the party with which the BJP is holding talks.

Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has proposed the idea of a grand alliance between PDP, National Conference and the Congress, to form the next government. While Azad’s proposal found takers in National Conference, PDP has not reacted openly, so far.