State Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam said the MLAs are going for a “picnic at Moments Resort in Latratu in neighbouring Khunti district”.
Ranchi: A day after news about the Election Commission of India recommending disqualification of Chief Minister Hemant Soren as an MLA, the latter along with MLAs of the JMM-Congress-RJD coalition government were seen leaving for Khunti on three buses amid a deepening political turmoil. The buses were guarded by security personnel.
State Rural Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam said the MLAs are going for a “picnic at Moments Resort in Latratu in neighbouring Khunti district”. On Friday, Alam had said that the MLAs of the ruling alliance cannot be poached and will stay in Ranchi.
Hitting out at the Centre, Soren had accused it of unleashing central agencies to “de-stabilise a democratically elected government”. He tweeted, “The Centre has unleashed all agencies on me after I asked for legitimate Rs 1.36 lakh crore dues which are pending to the state. When they saw that they cannot harm me, they are trying to harass ‘Guruji’ (Shibu Soren), who is in a certain age bracket, to get to me.”
Earlier in the day, after an emergent meeting, Congress, a key ally in the coalition, said they are mulling parking the MLAs in some neighbouring friendly state like Bihar, Chhattisgarh or West Bengal in order to prevent poaching by the BJP.
According to the report, the Election Commission had on Thursday written to Governor of Jharkhand Ramesh Bais in this regard. Sources from the Raj Bhawan had said that the Governor may disqualify the Chief Minister as MLA. The poll body has sent its recommendation to Raj Bhawan in a sealed cover hence exact details are still to come out. The opposition party, in its complaint, had said that the CM has a stone chips mining lease in his name which comes in the ambit of office-of-profit.
