Ranchi, August 27: Amid ongoing political turmoil in Jharkhand over threat of disqualification of Hemant Soren, ruling UPA MLAs led by chief minister himself tried to convey a message of unity.
Over 44 MLAs (except three Congress MLAs found with cash in Kolkata who have been asked by court to stay in Bengal and a Congress MLA who is indisposed) on three luxury buses embarked on a picnic at a resort in Latratu Dam area in Khunti district, around 70 km from Ranchi on Saturday afternoon.
Even as the drama unfolded, there was no word from Jharkhand Governor’s office on whether a decision had been made to disqualify Soren on the ‘office of profit’ charge as on Saturday. All eyes are now on Governor Ramesh Bais who is yet to communicate his decision after having received the opinion of the Election Commission (EC) in this regard in a sealed envelope on Thursday.
Earlier in the day the UPA alliance (JMM-Congress-RJD) along with CPM-MLA Vinod Singh held a three-hour meeting at the chief minister’s official residence Saturday to chalk out a strategy. This was the third such meeting of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and its coalition partners since Friday.
Soren’s outing with his MLAs and ministers comes amidst intense speculation that the opposition BJP might attempt to ‘poach’ legislators of the ruling alliance.
“We decided to go for an outing and returned by evening after a meeting at the Latratu dam guest house,” said a JMM MLA who did not want to be named.
The ruling JMM-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) combine has 49 MLAs in Jharkhand’s 81-member Legislature — JMM’s 30, Congress’s 18 and RJD’s 1 MLA. The lone CPI(ML) MLA, too, supports the JMM-led coalition. Opposition BJP has 26 MLAs as against the majority mark of 41.
The future of the Soren government has been hanging in the balance since EC Thursday conveyed its opinion to Governor Bais on an ‘office of profit case’ that could lead to the disqualification of the chief minister as an MLA.
The matter involves a petition filed before the Governor on 11 February by BJP leaders including former chief minister Raghubar Das, seeking Soren’s disqualification as an MLA on the grounds that he allegedly allotted a mining lease to himself last year while he was also heading the mining department. Soren has since surrendered the mining lease.
But the Governor referred the matter to the EC, which then sent a notice to Soren, asking him to respond to the charge that he allotted a mining lease to himself for a stone chips quarry on government land while holding the office of chief minister.
In its notice, the EC said it found that Soren’s actions were a prima facie violation of Section 9A of the Representation of People’s Act.
