Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Thursday demanded the copy of the Election Commission’s opinion in connection with the office of profit case against him. He called on governor Ramesh Bais and submitted a letter to him saying the political scenario in the state was “confusing and misleading”, and making the recommendation of the poll panel public will clear the air.
“Due to spread of news by the BJP and selected leak from Your Excellency’s office, a confusing and misleading situation has been created in the state government and among the public, which is not good for people and the state,” read the letter from Soren to Bais, which the CM said he was being “forced to write” due to the “unfortunate events of the past three weeks”.
The chief minister said he urged the governor to clear the confusion surrounding the EC recommendation in the office for profit case, and requested him to make a decision on it. “BJP is trying to gain power in the state unethically by using atmosphere of confusion,” Soren added.
The chief minister, who is facing the threat of disqualification as an MLA for the same reason, won the confidence motion in the state legislative assembly last week.
Soren had tabled the trust vote himself after calling a special session of the assembly. A total of 48 MLAs in the 81-member assembly passed the vote amid a walkout staged by BJP legislators.
The JMM-led ruling coalition has accused the opposition BJP in the state of “attempting to destabilise democratically elected governments” in non-BJP ruled states. Soren had alleged that the saffron party was trying to create a “civil war-like situation in the country by fuelling riots to win elections”.
After a perpetuated leak from the governor’s office about the EC’s recommendation in the office for profit case against Soren, there was fear of the BJP poaching MLAs following which the ruling coalition sent away close to 26 of its MLAs to a resort in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur on August 30. These MLAs returned to Ranchi for the trust vote.
The BJP had petitioned seeking Soren’s disqualification from the assembly in the office of profit case, while the EC had sent its decision to Bais on August 25, sparking a political crisis in the state.
While the EC’s decision has not yet been made official, there is a buzz that the poll panel has recommended the CM’s disqualification as an MLA. The ruling coalition alleged that the leak had come from the governor’s office and was being used by the BJP to create an unsavoury atmosphere.
The ruling UPA, meanwhile, has time and again said the CM’s disqualification as an MLA will not affect the government, as the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition enjoyed an absolute majority in the House.
The UPA has also accused Bais of encouraging political horse-trading by deliberately delaying announcing the decision while the JMM believes that the BJP may make a serious attempt to poach MLAs from the party as well as from the Congress in a bid to topple the government just like it did in Maharashtra.
The JMM, the largest party, has 30 MLAs, the Congress 18 and the RJD one. The main opposition BJP has 26 MLAs in the House.
(With PTI inputs)
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