The coming Rajya Sabha elections in Jharkhand is, for a change, not in the news this time for horse-trading or arm-twisting of MLAs by the ruling dispensation.

Even as three nominees are in the fray for the two seats, the election scheduled to be held on June 19, is likely to be a smooth run for MM chief Shibu Soren and the BJP nominee. The JMM, leading the government, has apparently shown no inclination to play 'unholy tricks' to rope in MLAs for its alliance partner, the Congress.

Soren, Congress candidate Shahzada Anwar and BJP's Deepak Prakash had all filed their nomination papers in March after the Election Commission issued the notification for the two Rajya Sabha seats. The election was scheduled to be held on March 26 but was postponed due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown to contain the spread of infection.

BJP’s Deepak Prakash filing his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections sometime in March in Ranchi Manob Chowdhury

The JMM with 29 MLAs is sure to comfortably send party patriarch Shibu Soren to the upper House. A candidate requires 27 votes to get elected as two seats are lying vacant in the 82-member Assembly. The nominated Anglo-Indian MLA has no voting rights.

Chief minister Hemant Soren vacated his Dumka seat while retaining Barhait. The Bermo seat fell vacant after senior Congress MLA Rajendra Prasad Singh died last month. In the State Assembly the JMM has 29 MLAs, BJP 26, including Babulal Marandi, Congress 17, including Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, AJSU party 2, CPI (ML) 1, NCP 1, RJD 1 and Independents 2.

With Independent MLA Saryu Roy, the BJP dissident who unseated chief minister Raghubar Das, extending support to his former party, the candidate of the saffron combine is set to cobble up at least 30 votes. The BJP with 26 MLAs, including Babulal Marandi, has also secured the support of the two AJSU Party MLAs and Independent MLA Amit Yadav. AJSU MLA Lambodar Mahto and Amit Yadav are among Deepak Prakash’s proposers.

The Congress, on the other hand, has been left with 17 MLAs in the Assembly, including Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey. Though the Congress and JMM leaders publicly asserted that both the candidates of the alliance would get through, they admitted in private that it would not be possible to get the Congress candidate elected. 'We are resigned to our fate as the ruling JMM is not taking any interest,” pointed out a Congress leader requesting anonymity.

Quipped a Congress MLA, 'I have to just cast my own vote. The rest has to be managed by R.P.N. Singh (Congress' Jharkhand in-charge).'

A senior JMM leader also pointed out that the game is clearly poised between the JMM and BJP. “We are not going to indulge in any unholy tricks which the Raghubar Das regime played in 2016,” he asserted.

Chief minister Hemant Sorn has called a meeting of the MLAs on June 18, the day before the elections. JMM spokesman Vinod Pandey, however, said, “We are working out a plan to get the requisite number. We are pinning our hope on such MLAs in the BJP, who are disenchanted with the leadershiop.'

Congress legislature party leader Alamgir Alam said that he was in touch with “like-minded” MLAs. NCP MLA Kamlesh Singh has announced that he would back UPA candidates.

But the election this time will be known for the tussle between the State Assembly Speaker and the Election Commission. The Speaker's office had earlier bracketed Babulal Marandi along with Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey as JVM MLAs in the voters' list for the RS poll. The EC, however, amended the list and counted Marandi among BJP MLAs and Tirkey and Yadav as Independents. The EC had already approved the merger of Marandi's JVM with the BJP, an issue which has been kept pending by the Speaker.

However, the EC’s refusal to accept the two former JVM MLAs, Pradeep Yadav and Bandhu Tirkey, as that of the Congress has also put the BJP in an advantageous position. Now, both the MLAs will not have to show their votes to the Congress representatives during elections.

Though Congress Legislature Party leader Alamgir Alam and also Bandhu Tirkey have said that the Speaker will look into it as the issue pertains to the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, a senior Vidhan Sabha official said that the returning officer, who happens to be the secretary of the Assembly, will follow the instructions of the Election Commission in this regard.

Speaker Ravindranath Mahto, when contacted, said the EC acted independently to prepare the voters’ list and categorise the MLAs. “It is an issue which happened outside the House, so we have nothing to do with it… we are not going to interfere into it,” he maintained.

On declaring Marandi leader of the Opposition, the Speaker said that it was an 'inside' issue and we are trying to resolve it sooner than later. He, however, refused to give any deadline in this regard.