Congress general secretary and Jharkhand in-charge Avinash Pande ruled out any threat to the JMM-led UPA government in the state over chief minister Hemant Soren being involved in “office of profit” row.

The former MP, who took charge of Jharkhand earlier this year, reached Ranchi on Wednesday afternoon on a two-day tour of the state and held meetings with party workers to strengthen the party base.

Speaking to the media later in the evening at the state party headquarter, Avinash Pande categorically said that there is a crisis in the coalition government.

“Congress, as a part of the coalition, is firmly behind the Hemant Soren-led government in Jharkhand and in the current political scenario there is no threat to the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government. There is a deliberate attempt by the BJP to create misleading propaganda through media in non-BJP-ruled states that the government is in trouble. But such malicious attempts would not be successful,” alleged Pande.

On the issue of Election Commission of India (ECI) sending notice to Hemant Soren on the mine lease issue, Avinash Pandey said, “We have full faith in the constitutional bodies and in the judiciary and the law will take its own course. It would not be wise to comment on anything at this moment. I can assure that the coalition government will complete its five year term in Jharkhand.”

Avinash Pande at Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi on Wednesday. Manob Chowdhury

ECI on Monday had sent a notice to Hemant Soren whom the BJP has accused of corruption for obtaining a mining lease while in power.

As per reports, Soren has been asked to show cause by May 10 as to why the EC must not recommend his disqualification under section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

Hemant Soren, who is currently in Hyderabad for treatment of his mother Roopi Soren, is learnt to have consulted top legal experts including Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Kapil Sibal to prepare a reply to EC notice.

A BJP delegation, led by former chief minister and party national vice-president Raghubar Das, had asked governor Ramesh Bais in February to dismiss Soren and have him prosecuted for corruption. Disqualifications fall under the ambit of the EC to whom Bais referred the matter in March.

In April, the EC asked Jharkhand chief secretary Sukhdev Singh to submit all documents related to the lease. In reply to a PIL in the Jharkhand High Court last month, the state government said that the grant of a lease was a mistake and Soren had surrendered the same.

Earlier, speaking to selected media in a virtual interaction, EC former legal advisor S.K. Mendiratta, who had been associated for 53 years with the commission, had claimed that Soren is unlikely to be judged as an office-of-profit, and the Supreme Court has ruled in 1964 that such mining leases don’t fall under 9A.

Avinash Pande, later in the day, reviewed the organisation empowerment campaign undertaken by the state

Congress for the last two months with members of the state-level coordination committee and district level committees.

“We had a very good membership drive of our party in the state and also raised wrong policies of the Central government at all the 320 blocks of the state,” said Pande.

“After the panchayat polls, our party members would visit all the 30,000 booths in the state. We are focusing on social media groups, and 27,000 active members have been involved in the exercise, including workers from the frontal organisation. Training programmes will commence from July which will be at the Pradesh Congress Committee level, then at the district level followed by the booth and block level,” added Pande.