New Delhi: The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government in Jharkhand has been rocked by the detention of three Congress MLAs from Howrah in Kolkata after police recovered cash from their car on Saturday evening.
The developments come at a time when Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren is in a difficult position in light of himself. allegations There is an allegation of corruption against him regarding the allocation of mining lease and land allotment in an industrial area of Ranchi.
three Jharkhand Congress MLAs are now being questioned by the Howrah Police that their vehicle was loaded with cash.
Howrah (Rural) Superintendent of Police Swati Bhangalia told ThePrint that the force stopped the car at Uluberia near Kolkata on Saturday evening after receiving specific information.
“The cash amount was so high that we have called currency counting machines to find out the total amount. Three Congress MLAs are currently being questioned.
However, senior Congress leader and Jharkhand Rural Development Minister Rameshwar Oraon told ThePrint that although it is “unusual”, it is too early to draw any conclusions.
“There is a need for a thorough investigation into the incident,” he said. But I can say that there is no threat to the coalition government in the state as of now,” Oraon told ThePrint.
But the JMM leaders were not so positive about the developments.
JMM general secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya told ThePrint, “We have been saying for the last two years that the BJP is trying to destabilize the government. The Howrah incident can be an example of this. We will discuss internally what happened in Howrah today and give our official statement on Monday.
Hours later, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of the incident.
BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ in Jharkhand got exposed in Howrah tonight. The game plan of ‘Hum Do’ in Delhi is to do in Jharkhand what they did in Maharashtra by pairing ED. Tweet,
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how things stand
The JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government has been in trouble for quite some time. were already Cracks In alliance, Soren rejected his colleague’s demand for a Rajya Sabha seat in May. JMM has fielded its candidate Mahua Majikrather than.
But there were flaws in the openn During the recently concluded presidential election. Seven Congress MLAs are believed to have voted in favor of NDA’s presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu against their party line.
Though the JMM had announced support to the tribal Murmu, the Congress decided to go with joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
Whereas Murmu’s firm votes in Jharkhand gross He got 70 votes, including 56 from BJP and 30 of JMM, of which 14 came from the opposition camp. The lone NCP MLA later announced that he had voted for Murmu. This means by subtracting 13 MLAs from the ruling coalition, JMM cross voting,
The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance in Jharkhand had won 47 seats in 2019, which is more than half the total vote share in the Jharkhand Assembly. 35.35 percent.
JMM It has 30 seats, Congress has 16 and RJD has one seat. In the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly. If the BJP, which has 25 MLAs, is able to garner the support of the 14 opposition MLAs who voted for Murmu on the lines of their party, it could bring the Soren government to a minority.
With these 14 MLAs, the BJP will reach 40, just one short of the majority mark in the Jharkhand Assembly.
In Jharkhand, the JMM-Congress alliance won 25 out of 28 seats. tribal belt In 2019, while the BJP managed to claim two seats. JMM Jharkhand has 30 MLAs, Congress 16 and BJP 25 in the 81-member assembly.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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