Jharkhand crisis: All’s well, says Congress, but unsure of its MLAs’ backroom politics | Political Pulse News,The Indian Express
Party's Jharkhand in-charge had met all MLAs in Ranchi, but just as he landed in Delhi on Saturday, he was greeted by news of the detention of the three legislators
Ever since the split of Shiv Sena and the fall of the Maha Vikas Agadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra, there has been talk of an impending political crisis in Jharkhand. The arrest of three Congress MLAs with a huge amount of cash in Kolkata, just over a week after nine of its MLAs were suspected to have cross-voted in the presidential elections, signals that a threat to the stability of the Hemant Soren government is looming large.
Jharkhand is not new to political turmoil and instability. In fact, the state had seen nine governments in the first 14 years since the state’s birth. Although the Congress is putting up a brave face saying there is no threat to the Soren government’s stability, the fact is that it is not sure of the next move of many of its MLAs, including some state ministers. The party believes plans are afoot to upstage the Soren government.
What has surprised the party is that AICC-in-charge Avinash Pande was in Ranchi for three days from Thursday. He met all the MLAs individually, including Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap and Naman Bixal — the three MLAs who are now under arrest and who stand suspended from the party after being caught allegedly with a huge amount of cash — and also took a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party. He had heard the “concerns” of the MLAs and asked them to stay united. But just as he landed in Delhi from Ranchi on Saturday, he was greeted by news of the detention of the three MLAs in Howrah.
Sources in the Congress said the three were among the nine suspected to have voted in favour of President Droupadi Murmu. Pande had in Ranchi talked of identifying those who had cross-voted and vowed to take action against them. While the party today announced the suspension of the three MLAs, it is unsure of how the situation will pan out. At least half a dozen more of its MLAs, sources said, are on the suspect list.
The Congress high command was aware of the simmering tension in Jharkhand. On one hand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren was facing an office of profit case. The Election Commission is looking into a petition seeking his disqualification for alleged misuse of his office for allocating a stone quarrying lease on government land to himself while he was the minister in-charge of mines in 2021.
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