Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) executive president Hemant Soren is likely to become the Chief Minister of Jharkhand for the third time following a consensus among the party-led alliance’s lawmakers in the State, sources said on July 3.
According to them, Leaders and MLAs of the alliance who sat in a meeting at Chief Minister Champai Soren’s residence in Ranchi decided unanimously that Hemant should be elected as JMM legislature party leader.
“A decision was taken in the meeting to replace Champai Soren with Hemant Soren,” a party source told PTI.
If he takes oath, then he will be the 13th Chief Minister of Jharkhand which became a separate state from Bihar on November 15th , 2000.
Besides Hemant Soren’s brother Basant and wife Kalpana, Congress’ Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir and its State president Rajesh Thakur were present at the meeting too.
Hemant Soren had been released from jail after nearly five months’ detention on June 28. When he was given bail by hc in money laundering case relating to alleged land scam.
He had stepped down as CM prior his arrest on January 31st .
Meanwhile, BJP MP Nishkant Dubey posted: “The Champai Soren era is over in Jharkhand. In this family-run party, anybody outside it has no future. I wish our CM drew inspiration from Bhagwan Birsa Munda and stood up against our corrupt Hemant Soren ji.”
The sources said soon Champai Soren might step down who took oath as Jharkhand’s 12th CM on February 2nd after Hemant went into custody.
Currently, while there are twelve berths; only ten are currently occupied by persons within Jharkhand Cabinet.
Earlier, on addition to three of February 2nd, eight MLAs were included into the cabinet on February 16th, including Champai Soren. As against the rest of them, Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam tendered his resignation on June 11th. Due to getting arrested by Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
The strength of JMM-led alliance has now reduced to 45 MLA’s from the state after Lok Sabha elections; JMM-27; Congress-17 and RJD-1.
Jama legislator Sita Soren resigned from her post for contesting general elections with a BJP ticket whereas two JMM MLAs, Nalin Soren and Joba Majhi are now parliamentarians. It expelled two more legislators – Bishunpur MLA Chamra Linda and Boriyo MLA Lobin Hembrom — but they are yet to resign from assembly.
This has led to a shrinkage of BJP’s strength to 24 as two of its MLAs— Dhulu Mahto representing Baghmara constituency and Manish Jaiswal from Hazaribag— contested the last Lok Sabha poll thus becoming MPs. Mandu MLA Jaiprakash Bhai Patel was expelled by saffron party for joining Congress in order to contest polls. However, he is yet to resign from assembly.
At present there are 76 members out of 81 members in Jharkhand Assembly.
