Resentment is looming among some Congress legislators in Jharkhand due to the inclusion of four party MLAs in Chief Minister Champai Soren’s cabinet. Eight of the 12 disgruntled MLAs arrived in Delhi on Saturday evening.
They plan to hold discussions with the Congress leadership in Delhi and demand the replacement of the four ministers. Congress legislator Kumar Jaimangal, also known as Anup Singh explained, “We want replacement of all the four… the 12 MLAs are together barring the four ministers and MLA Pradeep Yadav”.
Unhappy with the decision to include the four ministers, the legislators have threatened to boycott the upcoming state assembly session if their demands are not met. The JMM-led alliance in the state has 47 MLAs (JMM-29, Congress-17 and one RJD) in the 81-member assembly.
Rajesh Kachhap, Congress MLA from Khijri said, “When JMM can give new faces, why not Congress? Nobody is a king in a democracy. The group of 12 MLAs have already handed over a signed letter to the state party chief Rajesh Thakur on the matter.
Senior Congress leader Dipika Pandey Singh said, “We want the party to change the ministers and give opportunity to new faces. Instead of adding more women faces, they have retained only one woman minister… How do you justify that?
Most of the Congress MLAs objected to the name of Banna Gupta, who had courted controversy recently after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey posted a video purportedly showing him engaging in an “obscene” phone conversation with a woman. Gupta had termed the video “fake and edited”.
Congress state chief Rajesh Thakur said that the issues flagged by the 12 Congress legislators are being looked into. “They have expressed their feelings to me and I shall bring this to the notice of the party central leadership. The decision by the central leadership will be accepted by all. We are hopeful of resolving it very soon,” he added.
In the 11-member Champai Soren cabinet, there are only two new faces — Basant Soren, JMM supremo Shibu Soren’s youngest son, and JMM’s Chaibasa MLA Deepak Birua.
On Friday, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MLA Baidyanath Ram, who was allegedly dropped from the list of ministers at the eleventh hour, said he would not tolerate “this insult” and contest as an independent candidate in the upcoming assembly polls if required.
“Everything was finalised and my name was featured in the ministers’ list. But, at the last moment, my name was dropped. It is an insult. I will not tolerate it,” Ram had asserted, alleging, “Under pressure from the central leadership of Congress, my name was removed.
Ram also claimed that the CM assured him that he would resolve the matter within two days. Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31, shortly after he resigned as the chief minister.
The BJP has 26 legislators and the AJSU Party has three in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly.