Alleging that Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who faces imminent arrest in a money-laundering case, plans to resign and install his wife Kalpana Soren as his successor, the Opposition BJP intends to meet Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan and ask him to take legal advice regarding the situation. On Tuesday, Mr. Soren met the State government’s top lawyer as well as his party partiarch before calling his coalition’s legislators for a Wednesday meeting.
Mr. Soren has failed to appear before the Enforcement Directorate in the case registered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, despite six summons between August and December. The ED had summoned Mr. Soren for a seventh time on December 29, asking him to decide a date, time, and place for questioning within seven days.
The buzz in the State’s political circles is that Mr. Soren may follow the example of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, former CM of the neighbouring State of Bihar, who had anointed his wife Rabri Devi as CM in July 1997, after an arrest warrant was issued against him in the multi-crore fodder scamcase. Ms. Devi went on to rule the State till 2005.
Hectic political activity
Mr. Soren met with Jharkhand’s Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan on Tuesday morning, before heading to meet his father Shibu Soren, the patriarch of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). The CM then called a January 3 meeting of legislators from all parties in the State’s ruling coalition.
The Congress, the other major player in the ruling coalition, is also taking stock of the situation. When the party’s newly appointed Jharkhand in-charge Ghulam Ahmad Mir reached Ranchi on Tuesday, he told journalists that his main priority is “to take feedback from party workers and interact with them, following which we will decide on the future course of action”.
In the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, the ruling coalition holds 47 seats, including 28 MLAs from the JMM, 17 from the Congress, and one each from the RJD and the Communist Party of India (Marxists-Leninist). The BJP-led Opposition NDA has the support of 32 legislators, including 26 from the BJP, three from the All Jharkhand Students Union, one from the Nationalist Congress Party, and one Independent. Two seats are vacant.
Gandey seat empty
A few days ago, three-time JMM MLA Sarfraj Ahmad resigned from his Gandey Assembly seat, triggering speculation that the CM’s wife, Ms. Soren, may contest from the constituency, which is dominated by tribal and Muslim voters. Mr. Ahmad, however, refuted all such rumours, claiming that he had resigned due to “personal and family reasons”.
Nishikant Dubey, the BJP MP from the Godda Lok Sabha constituency claimed that Mr. Soren would soon resign, and his wife would take over power. “Chief Minister Hemant Soren is worried and his entire team is worried about Gandey bypoll,” he posted on X (formerly Twitter). “The key meeting of the JMM legislature party may take place tomorrow and after the meeting, a letter to the Governor with CM Soren’s resignation and making Kalpana Soren the leader of the legislative party will be submitted. My humble request to the Governor is to take any decision after legal advice,” he added.
‘Governor must seek legal advice’
“A BJP delegation will meet Jharkhand Governor soon and urge him to seek suggestions from legal experts and the Attorney General in case the Hemant Soren government proposes to anoint the Chief Minister’s wife as his successor,” state BJP chief and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi told journalists in Dumka on Tuesday. He added that in the corruption case where Mr. Soren had been summoned by the ED, “two IAS officers, an engineer, a middleman, and broker are behind bars”.
The ED had previously served its summons to Mr. Soren on August 14 and 24, September 9 and 23, October 4, and December 12. He never appeared before the agency, citing different reasons, and claiming that the summons was “politically motivated”. He had also approached the Supreme Court and Jharkhand High Court seeking protection against the ED, but his petitions have been dismissed.
“Despite the issuance of six summons, you [Mr Soren] have not appeared before this office, citing unfounded reasons. This non-appearance is impeding and hindering the progress of the investigation in the present case,” the ED said in its seventh summons. Mr. Soren had not responded to the agency till Monday evening.
