Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, facing possible disqualification as MLA, is set to seek a vote of confidence in a special session of the Assembly on Monday, as Arvind Kejriwal did in Delhi last week against the backdrop of alleged poaching attempts by the BJP.
In a letter addressed to all MLAs on Friday, Assembly officiating secretary Syed Javed Haider urged them to attend the session on Monday, after the monsoon session had been adjourned sine die on August 4, a day before it was supposed to conclude.
The letter said the chief minister had requested the Speaker to include in the agenda a motion seeking a vote of confidence and that the Speaker had agreed.The JMM-Congress-RJD alliance believes a trust vote would send the message to the people that the ruling combine was united despite the uncertainty over governor Ramesh Bais’s silence on the opinion the Election Commission submitted to him 10 days ago on the question of the disqualification of Soren as MLA in an office of profit case related to a mining lease that the chief minister has since surrendered.
Amid an intensifying crisis and allegations of BJP attempts of poaching to topple the government, the governor flew to Delhi on Friday. Bais, who received the EC’s opinion on August 25, had sought it following a complaint by the BJP. Most of the MLAs of the ruling combine who had been shifted to a resort in Raipur in Congress ruled Chhattisgarh to ring fence them from possible poaching were brought back to Ranchi in a chartered aircraft on Sunday evening and kept in a government facility.
They are to be taken to the Assembly in a group on Monday.The ruling alliance has 49 MLAs in the 81 member Assembly while the BJP has 26. All but three ruling MLAs, a Congress trio arrested in Bengal with Rs 49 lakh in cash that is suspected to be incentive for defection, are expected to vote on Monday. The three MLAs have obtained bail but have been told not to leave Calcutta. Soren has been battling an all out attack by the BJP, which has alleged deteriorating law and order after a Dumka schoolgirl died in an acid attack and another girl in Chatra was targeted in similar fashion.
The chief minister has ordered the payment of Rs 10 lakh in compensation to the family in Dumka and arranged an air ambulance to shift the Chatra girl to Delhi for better treatment. Soren has ordered the rehabilitation of about 50 Dalit families whose huts were demolished in Palamau district by a mob and stopped the eviction of another group in Ranchi that faced displacement because of constructions under a smart city project. Soren has been congratulated by government employees for reintroducing a pension scheme and by assistant police personnel for extending their contractual service. They visited the chief minister’s residence with bands and thanked him personally. The BJP legislatures met in Ranchi on Sunday to discuss their strategy for Monday’s Assembly session.
