BJP delegation to meet J’khand Governor against possible change of guard

According to party state unit chief Babulal Marandi, a BJP delegation is scheduled to meet with Jharkhand Governor C P Radhakrishnan shortly. The delegation will advise the governor to consult legal experts and the attorney general if the Hemant Soren government suggests the chief minister’s spouse be named as his successor.

Any attempt by Soren, who is allegedly involved in a land and money laundering scandal, to anoint his wife Kalpana will be a mockery of democracy, he said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The resignation by JMM lawmaker Sarfraz Ahmed on Monday indicated that Soren wants to field his wife from the seat and anoint her as chief minister in case he is sent to jail in the alleged scam, Marandi claimed.

“But Kalpana Soren being a domicile of Odisha cannot become an MLA from a reserved (scheduled tribe) seat in Jharkhand, let alone the chief minister of the state,” he said.

“If such an unprecedented thing happens it will be a mockery of democracy and will go against the legal framework,” said Marandi, a former chief minister of the state.

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Marandi said that it would be a blunder on the part of Soren should he project his wife as chief minister. It will also be a mockery of the election if she loses the poll as the state poll is due in November-December this year.

Despite receiving seven summonses from the Enforcement Directorate, the BJP leader questioned Soren’s “afraid” response to the agency. If Soren did not do anything wrong, he should go to the ED and answer their questions. Marandi called it “extreme” that Soren ignored ED’s repeated summonses, alleging that they were harassing him. According to Marandi, an ED raid recovered crores of rupees from an IAS official, exposing the Hemant Soren government to be “neck deep in corruption”.

Besides, two IAS officers, an engineer, a middleman, and brokers are behind bars on corruption charges.  “The ED has recommended registration of cases against many others but those files were in the almirah of the chief minister,” he said.

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Soren is spending crores of rupees from the state exchequer to protect these corrupt officials, he alleged.

Source: PTI