Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren resigned and was arrested in a land scam case yesterday. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case related to an alleged land scam in the state. Soren, leader of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led coalition government, submitted his resignation to Governor C P Radhakrishnan at Raj Bhavan before he was taken to the ED office for questioning.
The ED had reportedly summoned Soren again on Wednesday for the second time as he ignored previous summons on January 29. The agency had conducted raids at his Delhi residence and several other places in Jharkhand as part of its probe. The ED has accused Soren of acquiring illegal assets worth crores of rupees through fake documents.
Soren’s resignation has triggered a political crisis in Jharkhand .The JMM formed the government after the 2019 assembly elections with the support of the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). In the 81-member Assembly, the JMM has 30 seats, the Congress 16 and the RJD one. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 25 seats.
According to reports, the JMM has proposed the name of senior leader and transport minister Champai Soren as the next chief minister of the state. Champai Soren is considered close to Hemant Soren. He has also served as a cabinet minister in previous JMM governments.
Congress and RJD have reportedly agreed to support Champai Soren as the new chief minister . However, the final decision will be taken by the Governor, who can take a decision for the JMM to prove its majority on the floor of the House or impose President’s rule in the state.
Following Soren’s arrest, opposition leaders alleged that the ED was acting as a puppet of the BJP-led central government and was being used by these opposition parties to destabilise the states. This allegation of opposition leaders is not wrong at all. Just a few days ago, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav was also summoned by the ED. Rahul Gandhi on his x handle criticized the instrumentalization of ED as tool to harass opposition governments. He wrote
“ED, CBI, IT etc. are no longer government agencies, now they have become BJP’s ‘eliminate opposition cell’.
The BJP itself, steeped in corruption, is running a campaign to destroy democracy in its obsession with power”
ED, CBI, IT आदि अब सरकारी एजेंसियां नहीं रहीं, अब यह भाजपा की ‘विपक्ष मिटाओ सेल’ बन चुकी हैं।
खुद भ्रष्टाचार में डूबी भाजपा सत्ता की सनक में लोकतंत्र को तबाह करने का अभियान चला रही है।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 31, 2024
