Jharkhand Crisis: No CM For 24 Hrs As Governor Takes His Time; MLAs Flown Out

Ranchi: It’s been more than 24 hours since Hemant Soren resigned as Jharkhand chief minister and was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money-laundering case. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), which heads the ruling front in the state, was quick to name Champai Soren as Hemant’s successor.

But with Governor CP Radhakrishnan taking his time and not obliging Champai, the Jharkhand assembly remains in limbo without a CM.

Taking no chances, JMM and its coalition partners Congress and RJD flew their MLAs out of Jharkhand.

The MLAs, 43 of them as claimed by the alliance, were made to board buses and driven away to the Ranchi airport.

Under the watchful eyes of CM-elect Champai, the MLAs boarded chartered planes which were learnt to fly to Hyderabad.

The choice of destination was the capital of Telangana, one of three states which is ruled by the Congress on its own, to give the BJP no chance to ‘poach’ the ruling coalition’s MLAs.

“We are going to the airport… you know what kind of people they (the BJP) are… they can do anything at any time. A total of 43 MLAs are going,” Congress’ Jharkhand chief Rajesh Thakur said.

Champai had earlier met and asked the Governor to invite him to form the next state government.

“We have demanded that the process to start formation of the new government begin. Governor has assured us it will start soon. We have submitted the report with 43 MLAs in our support. We expect the number will reach 46-47… so there is no problem. Our ‘gathbandhan’ (alliance) is very strong,” Champai said.

However, there has been no call yet from the Governor.