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Latratu dam in the Khunti district.
The Congress, meanwhile, has called a meeting of its party MLAs at 8.30 pm on Saturday. Insiders in the Congress, a crucial ally in the JMM-led coalition government, had earlier said ring-fencing of MLAs by parking them in a resort in a “friendly state” such as West Bengal, Bihar, or Chhattisgarh is being considered as an option to prevent poaching by the BJP.
The development took place after a marathon third round of a meeting between legislators of the ruling alliance at the chief minister’s residence to chalk out a strategy to deal with the emerging scenario. The MLAs took part in the meeting along with their luggage.
Governor Ramesh Bais, meanwhile, is likely to send the order Soren’s disqualification as an MLA to the Election Commission of India on Saturday, Raj Bhavan sources said. The ECI sent its opinion to Bais on August 25 on a plea seeking that Soren be disqualified as an MLA for violating electoral norms by extending a mining lease to himself.
Jharkhand rural development and parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam had on Friday said the MLAs of the alliance cannot be poached and will stay in Ranchi. Another minister, Mithilesh Thakur, had claimed that the ruling coalition has the magic number of “50 MLAs, which can go up to 56” while asserting that they had learnt “resort politics” from the saffron party.
The BJP, the petitioner in the case, has sought Soren’s disqualification for violating Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which deals with disqualification for government contracts. The clause states that “a person shall be disqualified if, and for so long as, there subsists a contract entered into by him in the course of his trade or business with the appropriate government for the supply of goods to, or for the execution of any works undertaken by, that government”.
The JMM, the largest party, has 30 MLAs, the Congress 18, and the RJD one. The main opposition BJP has 26 MLAs in the House. The coalition partners had on Thursday claimed that there was no threat to the government. The JMM had exuded confidence that Soren will remain the chief minister for the full term till 2024.
(With PTI inputs)
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