Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren has called for a meeting again on Saturday morning 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.
On Friday MLAs of the ruling coalition assured Soren of their support. Congress leader and Jharkhand Health Minister Banna Gupta said yesterday that the JMM-Congress coalition is “standing strong”.
“No conclusion came out of the meeting. We are just studying all the matters carefully until the final decision comes. We will come again for a meeting tomorrow,” Gupta said after the meeting yesterday.
Jharkhand Congress working president Bandhu Tirkey yesterday said that the top party leadership has instructed him to support whatever decision alliance partner JMM takes following reports that Chief Minister Hemant Soren could be disqualified as an MLA.
“Whatever decision JMM takes as the major party of the alliance, Congress will support it. The top leadership of Congress has instructed us for the same,” said Bandhu Tirkey.
He further alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) always “insults the mandate and tried to destablise the JMM-Congress coalition government” in Jharkhand.
“Government runs on majority and we have enough majority. BJP always insults the mandate and tries to destablise the government,” claimed Tirkey.
Meanwhile this morning Soren tweeted that he hailed from the tribal community and was unaffected by the ongoing slugfest.
“This is a tribal son. Never have our ways ever been stopped by their tactics nor have we ever been afraid. Our ancestors have long removed the feeling of fear from us. There’s no place of fear in the DNA of us Adivasis,” tweeted Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren.
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 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. (ANI)
