Hemant Soren will remain CM of Jharkhand, ruling coalition MLAs say after crucial meeting

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who is facing imminent arrest in a land scam case, convened a meeting of legislators from the State’s ruling coalition parties

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who is facing imminent arrest in a land scam case, convened a meeting of legislators from the State’s ruling coalition parties at his official residence in Ranchi on January 3. Emerging from the two-hour-long meeting, at which the current political situation in the State was discussed, MLAs insisted that the CM would not resign.

Of the 38 MLAs in attendance, 23 were from Mr. Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), 14 from the Congress, and one from the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Other ruling party MLAs failed to attend due to personal and family reasons.

The meeting was called against the backdrop of the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) probe of the alleged land scam, in which it has issued seven summons which Mr. Soren has ignored. The last such summons was issued on December 30, 2023, in which the ED gave the CM a last chance to record his statement in the case, and asked him to state a place and time to do so.

After the seventh summons, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged that Mr. Soren planned to resign and install his wife Kalpana Soren as his successor.

After Wednesday’s meeting, however, many legislators from the ruling parties stressed that Mr. Soren would complete his five-year term as CM.

“Hemant Soren ji is the Chief Minister of Jharkhand and he will remain in the post. Our government is not afraid of anyone,” Congress MLA Pradeep Yadav said after attending the meeting.

“The design to dethrone the present government in Jharkhand will not succeed. We will fight for democracy,“ said Mithilesh Thakur, a JMM MLA and Minister in Mr. Soren’s government.