Jharkhand political crisis: Hemant Soren meets Congress state in-charge. 10 points

mid the political mayhem in Jharkhand, Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Sunday called on state Congress incharge Avinash Pande to discuss the next course of action. The meeting between the two leaders took place at the state Guest House and lasted for an hour.

Jharkhand political crisis: 10 updates

After a series of meetings, coalition partners JMM, Congress and RJD in a joint press conference urged Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais to clear the confusion prevailing in the state for the past four days.

“If there is any report from the EC (ruling Soren should lose legislature membership on account of a mining lease renewal during his last term as CM), the Governor should make it public and announce his decision. Developmental works are being hampered due to the confusion,” senior JMM MLA and minister Champai Soren told the press conference.

The CM’s party Jharkhand Mukti Morcha suspects that the BJP may make a serious attempt to poach MLAs from it and the Congress in a bid to topple the government in a manner “similar to Maharashtra”.

Amid the political turmoil in Jharkhand, state health minister and Congress leader Banna Gupta on Sunday dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre to impose Article 365 of the Constitution in the state.

"We have a full majority. If BJP has the courage, then impose Article 365 and dislodge the state government. Otherwise, it should not talk rubbish. The people of the state are now disturbed with all of this. The entire system has been stalled," added Gupta. Notably, Article 365 of the Constitution imposes President's rule on a State which fails to comply with the directions given by the union government.

After the meeting, Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur said, "This meeting was between Chief Minister and Congress state incharge Avinash Pande. What they have discussed is not right to make public. But yes they have discussed about the state political situation and the cloud of uncertainty."

Earlier on Saturday night, a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party was held to deliberate on strategy for further course of action.

In the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, the ruling alliance has 30 MLAs of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), 18 MLAs of the Congress and one MLA of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).

The BJP has sought Soren’s disqualification for violating Section 9 (A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which deals with disqualification for government contracts.

The clause states that “a person shall be disqualified if, and for so long as, there subsists a contract entered into by him in the course of his trade or business with the appropriate government for the supply of goods to, or for the execution of any works undertaken by, that government”.