The concern of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Congress party leaders is how to keep the MLAs in check. Be it the issue of the Chief Minister’s membership of the assembly or the issue of convening the assembly session to prove majority, these two matters are intertwined and are part of the ongoing check-box game between the JMM and the BJP. If the governor was not taking the decision, the state government decided to convene the assembly session so that the governor would take a decision in compulsion. But this is not the real game. The real game is about the solidarity of the legislators. JMM has no problem fighting a legal battle. But what if the legislators break up? JMM is not worried about its MLAs but has a big apprehension about Congress.
It is being told that out of four Congress ministers, three ministers and out of the remaining 14 MLAs, 12 MLAs i.e. a total of 15 out of 18 Congress MLAs are in contact with the BJP. A senior leader of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha said in an informal conversation that these MLAs were sent to Chhattisgarh because more than a dozen Congress MLAs have become committed with the BJP for one reason or the other. This means that stopping the Congress from breaking up has become an impossible task. That’s when the government has also started preparing for the elections. Decisions are being taken accordingly. A large section of BJP leaders are also demanding early elections. But most of the MLAs are not in favor of the election. Only then if it seems that the government wants elections, then the Congress MLAs will go with the BJP and if the BJP is seen preparing to go to the elections, then the Congress MLAs will not break. The next one week is very important for the politics of Jharkhand.
