MANISH GUPTA
Ranchi, Aug 26: As Governor Ramesh Bais keeps everybody guessing on the Election Commission’s report on Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s office-of-profit case the second day, political watchers believe the game has just begun and surprises are in store.
Feeding to the eerie silence of the Governor on the report, which is learnt to have been sent to the Governor a day before on Thursday, is the media bytes and tweets by some politicians including BJP Godda MP Nishikant Dubey and Independent MLA Saryu Rai.
While BJP maintains that the party had no say in the ECI’s report, political enthusiasts find it hard to believe that BJP is making so much effort just to disqualify Hemant Soren from Jharkhand assembly because the numbers strongly favour the ruling alliance.
It may be noted that the office-of-profit case in which Hemant Soren has been alleged to have secured ownership of a stone quarry mining lease in Ranchi district while in office can only disqualify him under Section 9 of The Representation of The People Act, 1951.
To bar Soren from contesting polls for a certain period, the matter of securing the mining lease has to be considered under The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. And, this requires court’s intervention for which things will have to be initiated first.
Some believe that the entire upheaval will not simply end with naming of another member of the wider Soren family as the next Chief Minister but attempts will be to topple the government. And, the real fight will start when the next CM will have to prove his/ her majority in the house. Even Soren went on with his routine official work and visited Netarhat today.
Currently, the ruling alliance has 48 MLAs (JMM-30, Congress-17, RJD-1), comfortably more than the minimum required strength of 42 MLAs. However, three Congress MLAs involved in the cash seizure case are in Bengal and Congress Legislature Party leader Alamgir Alam earlier today said that if required they will be called to Ranchi.
Claims and counter claims have begun. While BJP MP Nishikant Dubey said the UPA alliance has the support of only 36 MLAs, JMM General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya said that 16 BJP MLAs are in touch with the JMM.
Several possibilities and wish lists have surfaced. Dubey has suggested Soren should dissolve the assembly and call for a mid-term poll on moral grounds. And, Saryu Rai believes the ECI may ban Soren from contesting polls for some years.
Nishikant Dubey has further said that the state is heading towards a constitutional crisis. “Election is not possible in any assembly of Jharkhand within six months because the Election Commission is revising the voter list till January 5. Jharkhand is heading towards a special constitutional crisis,” he tweeted.
