JMM-led coalition MLAs to meet today to discuss political situation in Jharkhand

Ranchi: Legislators of the ruling JMM-led coalition in Jharkhand will meet here on Wednesday to discuss the present political scenario in the backdrop of the ED's summons to Chief Minister Hemant Soren and to chalk out a strategy.

Soren has been in the eye of a political storm after the Enforcement Directorate summoned him in connection with its probe into an office-of-profit case.

He has skipped six earlier summonses by the ED, accusing the BJP-led union government of using central agencies to destabilise his democratically elected government. The seventh summons was issued last month.

Sources in the Chief Minister's Office told PTI that the timeline for reply to the fresh summons by the ED will end on January 5.

Besides, the Election Commission had sent a letter to the then governor of Jharkhand, Ramesh Bais, in August 2022, which is believed to have recommended his disqualification as an MLA as a mining lease given to him was renewed during his tenure as the state’s chief minister.

However, neither Bais nor his successor C P Radhakrishnan opened that letter.

"A meeting of the legislators of alliance partners has been convened at 4:30 pm at the chief minister's residence on January 3. Please ensure timely participation in the meeting," Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) general secretary Vinod Kumar Pandey wrote to ministers of the alliance parties and legislators on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Soren has dismissed speculations of his wife Kalpana Soren contesting from Gandey assembly constituency in the state and termed it as a 'complete imagination' of the BJP.

There is not an iota of truth in the speculations, said Soren who is the executive president of the JMM.

"Possibility of my wife contesting in the near future is a complete imagination of the BJP... The speculation about handing over reins to her is a fabric woven by the BJP to build a false narrative," the chief minister told PTI.

The speculations were triggered by the Enforcement Directorate's recent summons to the chief minister coupled with the sudden resignation by the ruling JMM's MLA from Gandey, Sarfaraz Ahmad, on Monday.

The opposition BJP has claimed that Ahmad was made to quit so that the chief minister's wife Kalpana Soren could contest from the Gandey seat in case of any eventuality in connection with the ED summonses.