Ahead of Monday’s trust vote moved by the newly sworn-in Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren, the Congress — which is part of the ruling alliance in the State — expressed confidence that the coalition government will survive the floor test and go on to complete its tenure.
The tenure of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance government ends in November this year. The ruling alliance, comprising the JMM, Congress, and Rashtriya Janata Dal, has 47 MLAs.
“It is an 81-member Assembly and we have sufficient majority to clear the trust vote. And [former CM] Hemant Soren has been granted permission by the special court to cast his vote during the confidence motion. What does it show? This is a conspiracy by the Narendra Modi government and the Enforcement Directorate. All agencies are being misused against the leaders of the INDIA bloc. They are no longer independent institutions, they work at the Prime Minister and Home Minister’s directions,” Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said at a press conference in Bokaro.
Of these, 39 MLAs had been shifted to a Hyderabad report in the interim period between the swearing-in ceremony and the trust vote. This was only due to the threats from various Central agencies, Congress secretary Pranav Jha told reporters at Hyderabad airport. “We didn’t need to come, we came because the BJP was still trying to break us, not by giving us money but threatening our public representatives using the central agencies,” he said.
