Top Stories

Team Soren’s boat ride outside Ranchi amid Jharkhand crisis: 10 points

August 27, 2022
Bharat Times

Hemant Soren (upper left) along with his MLAs went for a boat ride near Latratu Dam.

Ranchi:
Facing the threat of disqualification from the Assembly, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and his ally Congress on Saturday cornered their MLAs – the standard tactic of poaching MPs and dodging attempts to topple governments.

Here are the 10 latest developments from this story:

  1. After a meeting at the Chief Minister’s residence, Mr. Soren and the MLA were seen boarding and leaving the buses with luggage. Later they reached Khunti, about 30 km from Ranchi, and were seen going for a boat ride in a lake near Latratu Dam. Sources said they plan to return to Ranchi by night.

  2. Before he left, Hemant Soren marathoned the third round of the ruling coalition’s legislators meeting to chalk out a strategy to deal with the emerging scenario. Sources said there are 43 MLAs in the group who were transferred.

  3. A leader had told news agency PTI, “If needed, all the ruling MLAs will be sent to the same destination. All the MLAs have come with their luggage to attend the important meeting at the chief minister’s residence.”

  4. Governor Ramesh Bais is likely to send an order for Mr Soren’s disqualification as an MLA to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday, PTI quoted sources in his office as saying.

  5. The Election Commission had on Thursday sent its opinion to Governor Bais on a petition seeking disqualification of Mr Soren as an MLA for violating election norms by extending a mining lease. The petitioner BJP in the case had sought disqualification of Mr. Soren.

  6. “Since our adversaries are unable to compete with us politically, they are abusing constitutional institutions. But we are not worried… It is the people who have given us the chair… Do what you can, My work for my people can never stop,” Mr Soren tweeted on Friday.

  7. The Congress has said it will support Mr. Soren as the consensus candidate. Congress MLA Alamgir Alam said, “Our alliance is strong. We will support Hemant Soren as chief minister.”

  8. While Mr Soren has not been barred from contesting, the BJP has called for fresh elections and asked the chief minister to resign “on moral grounds”.

  9. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey tweeted today: “According to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) sources, some MLAs reached Chhattisgarh at 2 am. Most of the MLAs are hesitant to leave and are waiting for orders from senior JMM leader Basant Soren. There are some buses parked in Ranchi for MLAs.”

  10. The ruling coalition has 49 MLAs in the 81-member assembly. The single largest party JMM has 30 MLAs, Congress 18 MLAs and Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has one MLA. The main opposition BJP has 26 MLAs. Minister Mithilesh Thakur had claimed that the ruling coalition has “50 MLAs (including the Speaker, who can go up to 56), while adding that they have learned “resort politics” from the BJP.