Uncertainty looms large over Hemant Soren’s continuation as Jharkhand Chief Minister as he is likely to be disqualified by the Governor as Member of the Legislative Assembly; the Governor has received the Election Commission of India’s opinion on the question. Technically speaking, Mr. Soren could remain in the post for up to six months without being an MLA. He could also get elected in the meantime. But that technicality apart, it is a huge loss of face for him and the parties that form the ruling coalition in Jharkhand, i.e., the JMM, the Congress, and the RJD. The case against him has its roots in a mining lease that he gave himself as a Minister for Mines in 2021. The BJP complained to the Governor on February 11, 2022, that this act was in violation of Section 9(A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The Governor referred the complaint to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for its opinion, as required by law, on March 28. On August 25, the ECI wrote to the Governor that Mr. Soren could be disqualified under Section 9(A). The awarding of a mining lease to himself was a brazen act of self-service, misuse of office and breach of people’s trust. One cannot also not take note of the innocence of his thought that such a transparent act of corruption would go unnoticed or unpunished — reminiscent of his father Shibu Soren going to a bank and depositing the cash he had received as bribe.
Mr. Soren’s agonies may not end with disqualification. Two PILs against him are pending in the Jharkhand High Court which seek a probe into the alleged allotment of mining lease for a stone quarry in a 0.88-acre land parcel in the Angara Block of Ranchi and the alleged laundering of money via some shell companies said to be linked to his family members. On June 3, the High Court accepted the maintainability of the PILs, holding that they did not suffer from any anomaly. In separate pleas, the High Court’s decision was challenged by the Chief Minister and the State government in the Supreme Court, which on August 17 reserved its order in the matter and stayed the High Court proceedings. The BJP is waiting in the wings to upend the Jharkhand government, and has tasted blood. The arrest in July of three Jharkhand Congress MLAs in West Bengal with huge amounts of money they had allegedly received to defect was a smoking gun. Cornered by proceedings of disqualification as an MLA and potentially facing a corruption investigation, Mr. Soren will have diminished authority over the MLAs of the alliance. The honourable thing for him to do in this instance of disqualification would be to resign as Chief Minister. His absence from the central seat of power in the State will be a test for the alliance and its government.
