Ranchi: The political deadlock in Jharkhand seems to be over as Raj Bhavan has invited JMM Legislature Party leader Champai Soren to form the next government in the state. Champai Soren will take oath as the Chief Minister today, Friday, 2 February, at a ceremony to be held at the Morabadi Ground. He will have to prove his majority on the floor of the assembly within 10 days of taking charge.
Champai Soren, who is the son of JMM supremo Shibu Soren, had met Governor C.P. Radhakrishnan on Thursday and staked a claim to form the government with the support of 44 MLAs from the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance. He had also submitted a letter of support from the alliance partners and requested the Governor to expedite the process of government formation.
However, there is still uncertainty over the number and names of the ministers who will be inducted into the Champai Soren cabinet. Sources say that the alliance partners are yet to finalize the portfolio distribution and the swearing-in ceremony may witness only a few ministers taking oath along with Champai Soren.
The alliance had also faced a scare of possible defection as some of its MLAs were reportedly approached by the BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party with 25 seats in the 81-member assembly. To prevent any poaching, the alliance had planned to fly its MLAs to Hyderabad in two private planes on Thursday night. However, the plan was aborted as the planes could not take off due to foggy weather at the Birsa Munda Airport.
Meanwhile, the outgoing Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who resigned on Wednesday after losing the confidence vote, is facing legal troubles as he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case. He was produced before a PMLA court on Thursday, which remanded him to one-day judicial custody. He is accused of receiving kickbacks from a mining company in exchange for granting mining leases during his previous tenure as the CM. He has denied the charges and called them politically motivated.
