Hemant Soren faced ethical, besides legal, questions about disqualification.
New Delhi:
Jharkhand Chief Minister, Hemant Soren, will seek some quick legal and political action after he is removed from legislative power, for having a mining contract with the state government despite being in office.
Here are the top 5 possibilities
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The governor – as reported by the Election Commission after hearings on the BJP’s plea – will announce his disqualification, sources told NDTV. This means Mr Soren loses his council membership. He and his cabinet would then have to resign. Government can be rebuilt. But can Hemant Soren retake the ministerial seat immediately? Generally, one doesn’t have to be an MLA for that. So the simple answer is yes.
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There are some gray areas. If a legislator is disqualified under anti-defection laws, he cannot serve as minister until he is re-elected as an MLA. Does that precedent apply here? In Mr Soren’s case, the disqualification was not under the anti-defection law. Here, Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act applies, to the important question – does he need to be re-elected first? – has not yet been resolved by any constitutional court.
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After Mr Soren’s seat was vacated, the Electoral Commission had to hold an investigation within six months. Mr. Soren can check again and get the chair back. However, if he cannot become prime minister until then, the JMM-Congress alliance may have to elect someone else to the chair. And Hemant Soren could later return as prime minister. He could have made it worse. According to experts, the law says an MLA committing a conflict of interest could even be barred from participating in elections for up to five years. Sources said Mr Soren would not receive that punishment.
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Politically, it is not a straight line. Weakened by turn-by-turn events, Hemant Soren may have to appease some factions. There have been allegations that the BJP is trying to overthrow the government, after three JMM legislators were arrested with Rs 50 lakh in cash in Bengal. The BJP has denied those allegations. Those MLAs said they came to Kolkata to buy saris. But a lot was read between the lines, especially with the BJP recently returning to power in Maharashtra following a coup in Shiv Sena.
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While Hemant Soren deals with his personal troubles, the JMM Congress may have to prove a majority in the House of Commons. The council has 82 members, of which the JMM has 30, the National Assembly 17 – an easy majority is 47. Plus it has support from several others. The BJP leads the Opposition with 25 members of its own, according to the Vidhan Sabha website. But the MLA-with-cash failure in Bengal shows that the math may not be as simple as it seems on paper. The BJP is asking for the midterm polls “on ethical grounds”. But minister and Parliamentary leader Alamgir Alam ruled out any threat to the government: “Hemant Soren continues to be our leader.”
