New Hemant Soren govt wins trust vote amid Oppn walkout

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led INDIA bloc government headed by chief minister Hemant Soren on Monday won the trust vote in the Jharkhand assembly amidst a walkout by the members of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

A total of 45 MLAs, including nominated member Glen Joseph Galstaun, voted in favour of the confidence motion in the House of 76 members. The opposition votes remained uncounted as the members of the BJP, ally AJSU Party, and the lone MLA of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) walked out as the headcount started.

“Today we again got to witness the unity and strength of the ruling alliance. I thank the Speaker and all the alliance MLAs for it,” Soren told reporters after the trust vote.

During his reply on the confidence motion in the assembly, the chief minister took a swipe at the BJP members, who trooped into the well as Soren started replying to the brief discussion on the confidence motion, saying BJP legislators are back to their business after seeing him again in the House.

“The BJP doesn’t have any agenda for the state. The people of the country put a mirror to their (BJP) face in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. Now there would be another opportunity in the upcoming assembly elections. Here, they would face strong resistance from the JMM-led alliance. They will be buried under their own conspiracy of misusing agencies. I am aware that a few members sitting here are in direct touch with the agencies. Now I am much more experienced about all these,” he added.

BJP legislators had trooped into the well seeking Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto’s permission to allow MLA Bhanu Pratap Sahi to speak before the Chief Minister gave his reply, which was turned down by the Speaker. They continued to raise slogans throughout the brief reply of the Chief Minister. They then walked out as the Speaker started the voting process over the confidence motion.

Earlier, Leader of Opposition Amar Kumar Bauri slammed the treasury bench alleging that the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance government did not fulfil, even a single promise in the last five years. He hit out at the government over the lack of job creation, alleged corruption, law and order, and the changing demography in Santhal Parganas leading to a reduction of the tribal population in the area.

“The foundation of this government was on lies. And they keep adding and announcing schemes to cover it up but deliver on nothing. They promised 500,000 jobs annually, but every exam they took had controversy and faced paper leaks with a few being cancelled. In Santhal Parganas, the demography is changing. In Bhognadih, where the first rebellion for ‘Jal, Jungle, Zameen’ took place in 1855, around 50,000 people had gathered. But today there are only 60 tribal families left in Bhognadih. In certain areas of Santhal, it seems we are in Bangladesh,” said Bauri.

AJSU Party chief Sudesh Mahto said the confidence motion was a no-confidence against former chief minister Champai Soren.

“This house never showed any no-confidence in this government. This situation is a creation of the government itself. This seems to be no confidence in Champai Da (ex-CM). He was doing a good job. He discontinued the prevailing system of nepotism. He was accessible to people. But the JMM is again back to the nepotistic system,” said Mahto.

Hemant Soren, the JMM executive president, was sworn in as the 13th Chief Minister of the state on July 4, a day after his predecessor Champai Soren stepped down from the post.

Champai relinquished the post five days after Hemant was released from jail on June 28 after the Jharkhand high court granted him bail in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. He had resigned as the chief minister shortly before his arrest on January 31 by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED).