Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s case is getting postponed. The matter of misuse of office in the matter of getting the mining lease in his name as Chief Minister had reached the Election Commission in May and the Election Commission had not asked him to file his reply by May 10. But on May 9, the Chief Minister sought one month’s time to file a reply, which he got. After that on every date he kept asking for time and he kept getting time. Now the next date is 12th August. Think, May 10th to August 12th! The Election Commission has been hearing the matter for more than three months. On the other hand, from the first day, the state BJP leaders are waiting that Hemant’s membership will be lost and he will have to resign from the post of Chief Minister and then the stampede will benefit the BJP.
BJP leaders have similar expectation from High Court and Supreme Court also. But there is also getting date on date. The next date in the Supreme Court is also on August 12, where the decision on the maintainability of the PIL filed to investigate the fake companies is to come. Seeing the process going on from the Election Commission to the High Court and the Supreme Court, and in the meantime, the BJP’s efforts are failing, it seems that the party high command is still nervous about any strict action against Hemant Soren. Barring the northeastern states, Hemant Soren is the only tribal chief minister. The tribal-dominated states- Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha have the only representatives of the tribals. He is the son of Dishom Guru Shibu Soren.
If he loses his assembly membership or if the central agencies take any strict action against him, then the BJP is feeling that its wrong message will go to the tribals. It will also have an impact on the elections from Gujarat to next year’s Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, which have decent tribal voters. Next year is the Lok Sabha elections. BJP leaders are assessing the political gains and losses, due to which the action against Hemant Soren is being postponed.
