Picnic politics, selfies on in state as political uncertainty continues to loom large over Jharkhand

Ranchi: For yet another day Jharkhand remained under political uncertainty as neither the Raj Bhawan nor the Election Commission of India came out with its official verdict over the fate of Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the office of profit row. 

Saturday too witnessed hectic meetings between the allies of the Mahagathbandhan as Chief Minister Hemant Soren chaired a meeting of the MLAs at the CM residence while in the night a separate meeting of the JMM and Congress MLAs was held at separate places which were chaired by Hemant Soren and AICC General Secretary and incharge for party affairs in Jharkhand Avinash Pandey. 

The day even saw a number of rumours including many MLAs going untraceable and MLAs being shifted to the neighbouring state of West Bengal or Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. Around the afternoon all eyes turned towards the Chief Minister’s house as three luxury buses entered the campus after which it was claimed that MLAs are being shifted to Chhattisgarh. 

What added fuel to fire is that many MLAs came for the meeting at the Chief Minister’s house with their luggage packed in their bags and even carrying mineral water bottles with them. Late in the afternoon, the three luxury buses came out from the backdoor of the CM house carrying the MLAs and even Chief Minister Hemant Soren accompanying them to the picnic spot of Latratu located in the neighbouring Khunti district. 

At the location, the MLAs had delicious lunch comprising both non-vegetarian and vegetarian items which were arranged by the Khunti district administration and clicked for photographs. Later some of them including Chief Minister Hemant Soren JPCC Chief Rajesh Thakur and other MLAs went for a boat ride in the dam where they happily clicked selfies.

Hemant Soren before departing from the house had also clicked a selfie with his fellow MLAs and cabinet ministers who were travelling in the bus. Later in the evening, all the buses returned back to the state capital. However few MLAs including Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Ravindranath Mahto were not part of the group which went for a picnic.

Those who did not go to the Latratu Dam included Assembly Speaker Ravindranath Mahto who is currently in  his home constituency of Nala while Congress MLA from Ramgarh Mamta Devi has recently given birth to a baby and is at her home availing rest while three Congress MLAs Irfan Ansari (Jamtara), Naman Vixal Kongadi  Kolibera) and Rajesh Kacchap (Khijri) are in Kolkata as due to their bail condition they have to remain in the capital of West Bengal for three months.

JMM MLA Chamra Linda was also not part of the group. Numerically the state government led by Hemant Soren is not under any sort of threat as in the 81 member Jharkhand Assembly JMM has 30 MLAs, Congress 18, RJD 1 and CPI-ML 1. The majority mark is 41.