Jharkhand in turmoil amid speculation of CM being disqualified as MLA by EC | India News

RANCHI: A possible disqualification verdict by the Election Commission against Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren in the office-of-profit case plunged the state into a state of political flux on Thursday as speculation mounted about whether the sealed recommendation to the governor included a bar on the JMM chief contesting elections for a certain period.
Raj Bhavan officials said the EC had found the complaint about Soren owning a mining lease while in government a fit case for disqualification from assembly membership under Section 9A of the Representation of People Act, 1951. Till late Thursday, governor Ramesh Bais hadn’t officially announced either the poll panel’s recommendation or how he proposed to go about executing it.

It was Bais who had sent a dossier to the EC on March 28, based on a complaint against Soren by his BJP predecessor Raghubar Das, who made way for the JMM president in December 2019. “Now that the commission’s opinion has been obtained, a decision on the matter would be declared by the governor shortly after consulting legal experts,” a Raj Bhavan official said.

JMM said it would move the Supreme Court if CM Soren was disqualified as an MLA. Chief spokesperson Supriyo Bhattacharya said there was no immediate threat to the government given the fact that the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition had an absolute majority of 49 in the 81-member assembly. JMM, with 30 MLAs, remains by far the strongest constituent and most likely to have the last word on Soren’s replacement in the event of him being barred from contesting elections. Congress has 18 MLAs, three of whom are dissidents arrested in Bengal’s Howrah with cash allegedly meant to be used in destabilising the government.

Reprising the Bihar template, where Rabri Devi slipped into the CM’s chair as husband Lalu Prasad’s proxy in 1997, JMM is believed to be considering Soren’s wife Kalpana as his first-choice replacement if he can’t stay on.
BJP has already said that JMM’s attempt to make Kalpana CM would be futile as she does not enjoy ST status in Jharkhand. The other potential candidate is transport minister Champai Soren.
BJP, which has 26 members in the assembly, ostensibly believes it can turn the tide. “We hope that whenever the verdict is out, it will be in our favour. When the CM is disqualified, we are sure that the government, too, will run out of its steam,” BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said.
Some BJP functionaries had been tweeting about the EC recommending Soren’s disqualification since early Thursday, much to JMM and ally Congress’s annoyance.
BJP’s Godda MP Nishikant Dubey declared the EC’s recommendation had reached Raj Bhavan, while Independent MLA Saryu Roy, known for scripting the defeat of former BJP chief minister Raghubar Das, tweeted, “He (Soren) has to resign as soon as the notification for his disqualification is issued by Raj Bhavan.”
Roy dashed off another tweet soon after, saying the CM could be barred from contesting elections for three years.
In a communique, the CMO wondered whether BJP MPs had drafted the EC report after the office-of-profit probe.
BJP claims Soren obtained a stone quarry mining lease in Ranchi district that remained in his name for more than a decade, including his previous stint as CM. The CMO maintains that Soren surrendered the lease a long time ago.