Hemant Soren wins confidence motion with 48 votes in Jharkhand Assembly

|HT|

Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren on Monday tabled a confidence motion in the Assembly amid a pandemonium created by the Opposition BJP. The motion of the ruling coalition was passed with 48 votes in the 81-member House. The motion was passed amidst a boycott by the BJP, its ally AJSU Party and two independents.

Earlier, he addressed the House and sought a trust vote in the special one-day session as an uncertainty continued over his political future and the ruling coalition.

Stating that obstacles are being presented before the state government, Soren said the onus of poaching Congress MLAs, who were caught in Bengal with a huge amount of cash, lies with Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

“Three of our MLAs are in Bengal. The onus of poaching (of MLAs) in Bengal lies on Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma. They don't cooperate with police going to those states to probe this,” Soren

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) boss came to the House along with a large number of MLAs belonging to the ruling coalition of the JMM, Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

A day ago, the legislators flew back to Ranchi after spending days at a resort in Chhattisgarh capital Raipur resort amid alleged fears of the Opposition BJP's attempts to lure them to the other camp. Soren had met the legislators last night at circuit house where they spent the night.

The political crisis in Jharkhand emerged after a petition by the BJP sought Soren's disqualification from the Assembly in an office of profit case. The BJP has accused Soren of allocating a mining lease to himself while he held the state Mining portfolio in 2021.

In February this year, the BJP submitted a memorandum to the governor Ramesh Bais seeking disqualification of Soren from the House under Section 9(A) of the Representation of People's Act.

The Election Commission has submitted its decision in this regard to the governor, however, the same is yet to be made public.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)