Days after serving notice to chief minister Hemant Soren, Election Commission of India served notice to his brother and Dumka MLA Basant Soren, on Thursday, over ‘office of profit’. EC has sought his reply by May 12. Basant is accused of co-owning a mining firm named—Grand Mining Works LLP but not disclosing about it in his election affidavit and also, not shunning his shares after becoming a lawmaker. Sources in the BJP said that it had separately sent a complaint to ECI in the recent months accusing Basant of owning a mining firm, and misusing his official position to get work orders in Santhal Parganas, to which EC took note and served him the notice today.
Sources in JMM maintained that the notice was served in a similar fashion as the one sent to the chief minister — by sending a special messenger via flight to Bokaro where the said mining firm is located. BJP’s MP from Godda Nishikant Dubey took to twitter to announce the EC’s notice. He wrote: “Let me tell you fresh news, CM’s brother has been served notice over office of profit by EC based on BJP’s complaint,” he had tweeted in the morning.
The developments are being seen as a dual blow to JMM as the party and the entire government machinery was busy chalking out legal modalities to bail out the chief minister, who received a similar notice earlier this week on Monday.
JMM insiders, however, said that they were anticipating such notice. “BJP’s entire game-plan is to surround the Soren family with legal cases and destabilize the government. But we will fight it back. Moreover, the way ECI is being misused is a testimony to the fact that it is no more a constitutional and independent body under the current NDA regime led by Narendra Modi,” fumed a veteran JMM lawmaker unwilling to be named.
Chief minister is yet to return from Hyderabad, where he is overseeing his mother Rupi Soren’s medical treatment. CM’s aides however continued to shuffle between Delhi and Ranchi for legal advice to prepare his reply.
JMM officially hasn’t commented on today’s development. Basant Soren too didn’t receive calls. His close aide, Dinesh Murmu said, “We aren’t aware of any notice. I am in Dumka currently.”
Basant is a lawmaker from Dumka seat. He won it during the 2020 bypoll after his elder brother vacated it to retain Barhait. Sources close to JMM said that the ongoing controversy was a result of laxity on their part. “Last time when Basant contested Rajya Sabha polls around 2016, he declared himself as an investor in the mentioned mining firm. However, nothing was mentioned about it in the affidavit when he contested for the bypolls in 2020. BJP had complained to both ED as well as EC accusing him of being a co-owner in the firm. We are exploring ways to tackle it,” said a JMM insider.
