Ranchi
With just a day to go for Chief Minister Hemant Soren to take a call on his appearance before the Enforcement Directorate, JMM MLA from Gandey Sarfaraz Ahmad on Monday resigned from his seat triggering several speculations in the political circles.
BJP MP from Godda Nishikant Dubey added fuel to the fire as he tweeted saying the Chief Minister will resign and his wife Kalpana Soren will take over. The New Year will be painful for the Soren family, he claimed.
The ED has through its seventh summons sought the Jharkhand Chief Minister’s availability on January 3 for questioning in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. The ED’s probe in this case pertains to alleged “huge racket of illegal change of ownership of land by the mafia” in Jharkhand.
While Hemant Soren has been exploring legal options and skipping the ED summons apprehending that he could be arrested by the Central agency, the ED in its seventh summon had even given him the option of providing a mutually-convenient place where it could question him.
Whether Hemant Soren will appear before the ED or not is yet not clear, but sources said in case of him getting arrested and Kalpana needing to be elected within the next six months, the possibility of her contesting from the vacant Gandey seat cannot be ruled out.
Ahmad, who was earlier with the Congress, has won the seat thrice, the last time in 2019 as a JMM MLA. Following his resignation, the UPA’s strength in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly now stands at 46 MLAs, five more than the required majority thus posing no threat to the ruling regime.
The Chief Minister, for his part, appeared unfazed as he went about business attending a rally to mark the martyrdom of tribals shot dead by police in Kharsawan. While he said efforts will be made to identify the next of kin of the martyrs, he hit out at the opposition on different issues. He said if Adivasis and Dalits join hands they will be invincible in polls and can shape the destiny of over 100 Lok Sabha seats reserved for ST/SCs.
