JMM leader and Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren passed his first major hurdle by winning the crucial vote of confidence in the Assembly on Thursday, five days after he was sworn in as head of a JMM-Congress-RJD combine.
The alliance government, supported by six independent MLAs, got 43 votes against the Opposition’s 37 in Jharkhand’s 82-member Assembly. Mr Soren, the son of JMM supremo Sibu Soren and a former deputy chief minister in the previous alliance government led by the BJP’s Arjun Munda, had on July 9 submitted to Governor Syed Ahmed a list of 43 MLAs supporting his government.
Two JMM legislators absconding for months to avoid arrest in criminal cases and a convicted Congress MLA managed to attend the Assembly and voted for the government. Both the MLAs had remained underground till Wednesday and raised Soren’s worries.
“We have secured a full majority. Our government will take no decision out of coalition compulsions that would hurt the state’s people, even if I might have to resign,” said Soren after winning the vote. “Our first priority will be to frame a common minimum programme with consensus reflecting the people’s well-being” he added.
JMM MLA Sita Soren, the widowed daughter-in-law of Sibu Soren, appeared in the Assembly reportedly after surrendering to
the police and securing a bail. An accused in the alleged bribery scam during the 2012 RS polls, she was evading arrest for allegedly abducting and assaulting her former aide who had deposed against her to the CBI in the bribery case.