Chief minister Hemant Soren’s disqualification as an MLA, which most believe will happen sooner or later, is unlikely to be the lone case in the present Jharkhand Assembly.

Political observers feel that Soren’s disqualification may immediately be followed by that of BJP leader and former chief minister Babulal Marandi.Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto on Wednesday concluded the hearing of a case pertaining to defection charges against Marandi and reserved his judgment, sparking speculation that it would go against the former BJP chief minister.

The lawyers defending Marandi also expressed resentment, saying the Speaker did not allow them to examine witnesses and grant more time to place their arguments. “I urged the Speaker to allow us to examine the witnesses so that we could prove our point but that was turned down,” said R.N. Sahay, one of the advocates representing Marandi.

Marandi and two others, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, were elected to the state Assembly in December 2019 as members of the now-defunct Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM), headed by Marandi himself. Yadav and Tirkey left JVM to join the Congress, and Marandi returned to the BJP fold, declaring merger of his party with the saffron party in 2020.

Raj Kumar Yadav, a former MLA, and Deepika Pandey Singh, Bhushan Tirkey, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, all sitting MLAs from the ruling combine, urged the Speaker to take action against Marandi under the provision of the anti-defection law.Speaker Mahto started hearing the case in January 2021 and held 11 sessions during the past 19 months before concluding it on Tuesday.

Besides Soren and Marandi, a few other MLAs of the state are also facing the threat of disqualification. Basant Soren, the JMM MLA from Dumka and younger brother of Hemant, also has a clash-of-interest case pending with the poll panel, and may face disqualification. Yadav and Tirkey also have defection charges against them and the Speaker is likely to hear those from September 2.

But Tirkey already lost his membership of the House following his conviction in a disproportionate assets case and his daughter, Shilpi Neha Tirkey, got elected as a Congress candidate in the recent by-election for the Mandar seat that fell vacant after Tirkey’s disqualification. “Though quite a few MLAs have such complaints against them, Hemant and Marandi are most interesting cases,” a journalist here said.The Speaker will take no time to deliver his judgment against Marandi if the Raj Bhavan announces disqualification of Hemant, he said.