Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Saturday sent out a message of unity among the ruling UPA MLAs amid a threat of his disqualification in an office-of-profit case looming large.

Nearly 44 MLAs went in three luxury buses on a “picnic” to the scenic Latratu Dam in Khunti district, over 75km from Ranchi, on Saturday morning and returned to the state capital at around 6pm.

Ramgarh Congress MLA Mamta Devi, who delivered a baby last week, and three Congress MLAs, who were caught with cash in Calcutta, were missing from the group.

The three Congress MLAs — Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachchap and Naman Bixal Kongari — were arrested by Bengal police with Rs 50 lakh last month. They are now out on bail but will have to remain in Calcutta in keeping with their bail conditions.

“All the ruling alliance MLAs are intact and united. In fact, we have the support of CPML MLA Vinod Singh, too, which makes our number 49. We are neither jittery nor afraid of the BJP-led Centre’s manoeuvres,” said JMM central general secretary Vinod Pandey, who is considered close to Hemant.

The ruling JMM-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal combine has 49 MLAs in Jharkhand’s 81-member legislature — the JMM has 30 MLAs, Congress 18 and RJD 1. The lone CPI(ML) MLA, too, supports the JMM-led coalition. Opposition BJP has 26 MLAs against the majority mark of 41.

Hemant’s move comes less than 24 hours after his emotional speech at Netarhat in Latehar on Friday evening in which he accused the BJP of using central agencies to topple his government.

“The chief minister has made his intention clear that he is prepared for an imminent bypoll in Barhait (the Assembly constituency, which Hemant Soren represents). Since the last few weeks, he had been directing officials to fulfil all poll promises at the earliest. It was as if the chief minister had an inkling of the Centre using the Election Commission of India to harass him,” a source in the CMO said.

There was no official communication from governor Ramesh Bais on Saturday on the Election Commission’s report sent to the Raj Bhavan on Thursday, which is believed to have recommended Hemant’s disqualification as an MLA for flouting electoral norms by extending a mining lease to himself, something the BJP dubbed as an “office of profit” violation.

The BJP, the petitioner in the case, has sought Hemant’s disqualification for violating Section 9(A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

However, Raj Bhavan sources said: “The governor will sign the disqualification order soon and it will be sent to the ECI, which will in turn send it to the state chief electoral officer for conveying it to the Assembly Speaker.”

AICC Jharkhand in-charge, Avinash Pande, arrived in Ranchi on Saturday evening and is likely to hold a meeting of the Congress MLAs besides meeting Hemant to discuss the political scenario.