Senior High Court advocate Rohitashya Roy was appointed as the new Advocate General (AG) of Jharkhand on Sunday evening. The appointment came hours after incumbent AG Rajiv Ranjan unexpectedly resigned from the post in the morning.
Chief Minister Hemant Soren accepted Ranjan’s resignation before the state Law Department formally notified Roy’s appointment. The reasons behind Ranjan’s sudden exit remain under wraps.
Ranjan had been leading the state's legal team since February 7, 2020, following the formation of the JMM-led alliance government after the 2019 Assembly polls. Notably, while he continued to represent the state in critical constitutional, administrative, and policy matters, a fresh notification reappointing him after the recent assembly elections was never officially issued.
The opposition BJP used the transition to launch a scathing attack on the Hemant Soren administration, accusing it of compromising constitutional offices to suit internal power dynamics.
BJP state spokesperson Ajay Sah termed the development a game of "musical chairs," claiming that no official holding a constitutional post is secure under the current regime. "Decisions on who is ousted, forced to resign, or made a scapegoat are dictated by internal power equations within the ruling establishment, not by merit or performance," Sah alleged.
The opposition further accused the government of weaponizing the AG's office for political vendettas, leading to fiscal waste and legal embarrassment. Sah claimed that the state frequently dragged legally weak cases, "positions so flimsy that even a first-year law student could spot the flaws"—all the way to the Supreme Court purely for political mileage.
Demanding absolute transparency, the BJP has called for a comprehensive white paper on Ranjan's six-year tenure. The party demanded that the state government publish: The exact win-loss record of cases handled by the state during this period, the total public expenditure incurred on hiring external lawyers and legal consultants and the tangible benefits, if any, the state derived from these expenses.
"The government must break its silence on the behind-the-scenes power struggles and bargaining politics. If Ranjan's performance was satisfactory, why was he made to resign? If it wasn't, why was he retained for so long? The people of Jharkhand deserve to know the truth," Sah added.