Endgame in Ranchi

THE RANCHI RAJ Bhavan, a pre-Independence building with its sprawling lawns and colonial architecture, is again bracing up to face Jharkhand’s political storm. This is not the first time that the ball is in the governor’s court in the 22-year-old state to decide the fate of the chief minister who resides at a stone’s throw from him. And it does look like time is running out for Hemant Soren with Governor Ramesh Bais referring a report by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on the chief minister’s alleged violation of office of profit norms to Central law officers for an opinion. If the legal process ends in Soren losing his Assembly membership, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader will need to step down and make way for a replacement. While it’s speculated that Soren may install his wife as chief minister, he must also ensure his own flock of MLAs and those from Congress remain loyal.

Soren does have the option of seeking re-election, but it will be a fraught wait with BJP lurking round the corner. As it happens, ties between Congress and JMM have deteriorated and rumours of defections have been doing the rounds. Nor is it the first time a Soren has been in the eye of the storm. In 2005, Governor Syed Sibte Razi swore in Shibu Soren, the JMM supremo, as chief minister, denying an opportunity to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which had claimed the support of 41 legislators, the number needed for a majority in the 81-member House. Congress leaders—Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and Subodh Kant Sahay—worked behind the scenes to ensure the numbers for a Soren government. As the governor’s role came under a cloud, the Supreme Court cut down the number of days given to Soren by Razi to prove his majority. The Soren government fell in 10 days, paving the way for BJP’s Arjun Munda to form a new government.

Eight years later, by which time political equations had changed with JMM backing BJP, Munda, who had to step down in his third stint as chief minister after the ally withdrew support, the focus turned to Raj Bhavan again. BJP had rejected all of JMM’s demands, including handing over power on a rotational leadership within the coalition. The state cabinet recommended dissolution of the House. JMM’s Hemant Soren, who was then the deputy chief minister, said the cabinet recommendation on dissolution of the House did not stand as his party had announced its decision to pull out before that. Governor Syed Ahmed sent a report to the Union home ministry saying that no party had come forward to form an alternate government after Munda’s resignation. He recommended the imposition of president’s rule, keeping the state Assembly in suspended animation. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) at the Centre, at a meeting of the Union Cabinet, approved the recommendation and sent it to the president for assent. Munda later said Jharkhand had become a “laboratory” for political experiments. This was the third time the state had come under president’s rule, in just 13 years of its existence. It might have been payback time for BJP as, in 2010, Soren refused to step down as chief minister, defying the agreed rotational swap of chief ministers between the two parties. BJP withdrew support, leaving no option for Soren but to resign. Then Governor MOH Farook recommended president’s rule in the state which has so far witnessed 10 governments since its formation in 2000.

All eyes are again on the governor, this time round after a sealed envelope was reported to have reached Raj Bhavan from ECI that apparently recommends Soren’s “disqualification” for awarding a mining contract to himself. This would mean he and his entire cabinet would have to resign. But he may be able to contest a bypoll in six months’ time and regain his position as chief minister if he wins and his party re-nominates him. For days after the poll panel sent its recommendation, there was no official word on the contents of the envelope. The silence on the part of Governor Ramesh Bais has kept the state government on tenterhooks, deepening the political uncertainty. Bais said he was at AIIMS for two days and would take stock of the situation as soon as he returned. As secrecy over the ECI letter continued, hectic consultations were understood to be on between Raj Bhavan and legal experts on the fallout of its recommendation.

It had all begun about 14 years ago when Soren signed a mining lease agreement in 2008. Madhu Koda, an independent MLA, was chief minister then. His affidavits, filed ahead of elections he contested till 2019, said “lease agreement with Jharkhand government in the year 2008, right now under process for renewal”. With the JMM-led UPA winning the state Assembly elections in 2019, he became chief minister, and also held the mines, environment and industry portfolios. In June 2021, the District Mining Department, Ranchi, issued a letter to him accepting his Letter of Intent (LoI) for stone quarry mining for 0.88 acres of land at Mouza-Angara on the outskirts of Ranchi. Three months later, Soren sought environmental clearance (EC) from the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). Sensing the political heat, he applied for cancellation of the lease in February. But by then the allegations of misuse of office had already gathered momentum.

In January, Ranchi-based Right to Information (RTI) activist Sunil Mahato was already trying to draw the attention of the governor and the Centre to the issue. In February, former Chief Minister Raghubar Das led a BJP delegation to Raj Bhavan to submit a memorandum seeking Soren’s removal as chief minister and disqualification as an MLA, alleging misuse of office. In the memorandum submitted to Bais, a former BJP leader who was minister of environment and forests in the Vajpayee government, the party accused Soren of allotting a mining lease in his own name, violating the code of conduct for chief ministers and ministers. It also alleged that it was in violation of the constitutional provision under Section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, relating to disqualification for government contracts. Bais had referred the matter to ECI after which Soren was issued a notice by the poll body asking why action should not be taken against him. ECI heard both sides.

Amid the silence on ECI’s recommendation, speculation has also intensified about options before the chief minister. In case he is disqualified as MLA and barred from contesting elections for a specific period of time, it will be difficult for him to continue as chief minister. In 2001, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa was barred from contesting elections in the wake of corruption charges against her. Her party, however, won 132 of the 234 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election which she flaunted as a mandate for her. Governor Fathima Beevi, invoking an article granting such power to the governor, invited her to form the government despite ECI denying her a ticket to contest. Jayalalithaa, however, had to step down with the Supreme Court, in September 2001, declaring her swearing-in unconstitutional and void. Party leader O Panneerselvam was made chief minister till she was acquitted by the Madras High Court in December. She contested an election, won and returned as chief minister.

In Hemant Soren’s case, the speculation is that another Soren might be appointed chief minister. Among the frontrunners are Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana and father Shibu Soren as this would ensure that the reins of the party remained with the family. Shibu Soren, who has had his share of ups and downs in his political life, including legal cases and criminal charges, is 78. Kalpana, 47, the low-profile daughter-in-law, has her roots at Tentala village in Odisha’s Mayurbhanj but was born in Ranchi. The eldest daughter of a retired defence sector employee, she went to school at the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Baripada, the district headquarters of Mayurbhanj, got her BTech degree from an institute in Bhubaneswar and then did an MBA. Shibu Soren’s eldest son, Durga Soren, had entered politics and in 1995 won the Jama Assembly seat. After he died of a brain haemorrhage in 2005 at the age of 40, Hemant entered the political scene. The Jama seat is now held by Durga’s widow, Sita Soren. Basant, the youngest Soren heir, is 42 and an MLA from Dumka, a seat his father once held.

All eyes are on the Governor after a sealed envelope reportedly reached Raj Bhavan from the election commission recommending Soren’s ‘disqualification’

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The allegations have brought the entire Soren clan under a cloud. When the mining lease issue had come up in the Supreme Court and the Jharkhand High Court through public interest litigations (PILs), Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan, representing the government, said granting of the lease was a “mistake” and the chief minister had already “surrendered” the lease. JMM ruled out any ‘office of profit’ case, saying Soren had already surrendered the lease and had not got even a rupee as revenue from it. Meanwhile, in April, the Jharkhand High Court issued a notice to Soren over a petition seeking a probe into the assets of the chief minister and his brother Basant Soren beyond their known sources of income, alleging money laundering through shell companies. Even as these allegations were being probed, Raghubar Das accused the chief minister of using his clout to get Kalpana 11 acres of land in an industrial area in Ranchi for her business. The plots on this land, said Das, were meant for industrial initiatives for tribals. JMM rejected these allegations, saying that no rule was bent in the state industry department in allotting a plot to a company owned by Kalpana as it was an open process that was advertised.

While awaiting word from Raj Bhavan, Hemant Soren tried to keep his flock together, from a picnic with them at a tourist spot 32 km from Ranchi to flying UPA MLAs to Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh. The ruling alliance in Jharkhand is numerically comfortable with 30 members of JMM, 18 of Congress, and one of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). JMM has charged BJP, which has 26 MLAs, with trying to topple its government, particularly after three of its legislators were caught with almost ` 50 lakh each in West Bengal. “The BJP has been trying to topple governments in states which are not ruled by it. The fear of horse trading is looming over the state government, disrupting governance in the state,” says JMM’s Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji.

BJP has denied that it was trying to lure JMM MLAs, and is demanding mid-term polls. “The Law is taking its course and everyone should have faith in it,” says state BJP chief and Rajya Sabha MP Deepak Prakash. Mounting its attack on the Soren government, BJP has alleged the law and order situation is deteriorating in the state, referring to the death of a Class 12 girl, Ankita Singh, after a stalker set her on fire. Babulal Marandi, former chief minister and party leader, said that she might have been saved if the government had airlifted her to a good hospital.

Just two years before Hemant Soren was sworn in as chief minister, Madhu Koda, an independent MLA who was chief minister from 2006 to 2008, was held guilty in the coal blocks allocation scam that had surfaced in 2012 and was given a three-year jail term. Soren had pitched his campaign on development besides the Chota Nagpur Tenancy (CNT) Act, 1908 under which non-tribals are barred from purchasing tribal land on the Chota Nagpur Plateau. He also tried to widen his party’s political outreach beyond its tribal vote bank. He was seen as a generational shift from his father, popularly called “Guruji”, an activist-turned-politician who got embroiled in several controversies, including the JMM bribery case. In 2006, Shibu Soren had to step down as chief minister after he was convicted for the 1994 murder of his former secretary Shashi Nath Jha, who was believed to have learnt about the monetary deal between Congress and four JMM MPs, including Soren, to save the then minority PV Narasimha Rao government in a no-confidence motion in 1993. But Guruji’s popularity among tribals survived the allegations and cases against him.

The mining lease has cast a shadow over Hemant Soren who is midway through his term as chief minister. At the time of this report going to press, there was still suspense about the next turn in Jharkhand’s politics.

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Amita Shah