Jharkhand Political Turmoil: JMM MLAs likely to be shifted to Chhattisgarh

Ranchi: The political turmoil is increasing in Jharkhand as Congress-Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLAs are likely to be shifted to the neighbouring state, Chhattisgarh. The luggage in MLA’s car has furthered the speculations of this movement. 

Earlier this morning, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren had called for a meeting of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led ruling alliance legislators, a day after he met the MLAs twice at his official residence here, amid speculation that he might be disqualified from the state assembly over a mining lease contract. 

Because of this turmoil, the JMM-Congress leadership is said to have agreed to relocate its MLAs to Chhattisgarh, which is run by the Congress party. According to sources, the MLAs arrived at the Chief Minister's house carrying luggage. After the conference, they might be taken to the neighbouring Chhattisgarh district of Sarguja.

However, CM Hemant Soren has said to have started the damage control after getting hints of not receiving official notice. Although Raj Bhavan has not issues an official notice, Soren’s disqualification is still not ruled out.

Case so far

In the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, the ruling alliance has 30 MLAs of the JMM, 18 MLAs of the Congress and one MLA of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Friday’s meeting of the MLAs came a day after CM Soren denied receiving any communication from the ECI or Governor Ramesh Bais on the statements about the poll body "recommending his disqualification as an MLA." 

The Chief Minister’s office released a statement on Thursday after several media reports speculated that the ECI has sent a report to the Governor about Soren’s disqualification.

"The Chief Minister is apprised of several media reports about ECI sending a report to Honorable Governor -Jharkhand ‘apparently recommending his disqualification as an MLA’. No communication in this regard has been received by CMO from either ECI or Governor," read the statement.

Soren has alleged that the EC report was "drafted" by the principal opposition party in Jharkhand, BJP with its 25 MLAs, to topple the Jharkhand government. The trail of events gained pace after Nishikant Dubey, BJP Member of Parliament from Godda, Jharkhand, tweeted that a letter from the ECI has reached the Raj Bhavan.

The BJP has sought the disqualification of Soren as an MLA accusing him of allocating a mining lease to himself while he held the portfolio of Mines Minister in 2021. In February this year, the BJP submitted a memorandum to the Governor seeking disqualification of Soren from the House under Section 9(A) of the Representation of People’s Act.

The Governor had forwarded the BJP complaint to the ECI and the poll panel in May had issued a notice to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader. The hearing in the Hemant Soren mine leasing case was concluded in the ECI on Monday.

(With agency inputs)