Political uncertainty in Jharkhand ended on Thursday morning as disgruntled Congress MLAs returned from Delhi claiming to attend the budget session, the first by the Champai Soren-led government, from Friday.
Significantly, 12 Congress disgruntled MLAs had openly voiced dissent over the continuation of “old faces” in the Champai cabinet after its expansion on February 16. Alamgir Alam, Badal Patralekh, Banna Gupta and Rameshwar Oraon had been retained as cabinet ministers from the Congress.
Soon after the swearing-in ceremony, the 12 MLAs had stayed put in Ranchi Circuit House and eight of them left for Delhi on Sunday to apprise the party high command about their grievances and threatened to boycott the Assembly session if their grievances were not addressed.
Jamtara MLA Irfan Ansari said that they met AICC general secretary K.C. Venugopal during their stay in Delhi and apprised him of their concern and grievances.
“Venugopal ji said that they have information about all the activities of Jharkhand and the party will take appropriate decisions soon. We gave a detailed report to him. We have positive indications from the party high command,” Ansari said.
He said the Congress MLAs would attend the budget session of the Assembly.
Meanwhile, in a setback to the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) special court on Thursday rejected the petition of former chief minister Hemant Soren to attend the budget session.
On Wednesday, the court reserved the decision after hearing Hemant’s application and hearing the arguments of both sides.
