Will Hemant Soren Lose Jharkhand CM Post? EC Sends Opinion To Governor Over Disqualification Plea

The Election Commission reportedly sent its opinion to Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais on a plea seeking Chief Minister Hemant Soren's disqualification as an MLA for violating electoral law.

New Delhi: The Election Commission reportedly sent its opinion to Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais on a plea seeking Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s disqualification as an MLA for violating electoral law by allegedly extending a mining lease to himself. Several media reports claimed that the poll body may have “recommended disqualification of Hemant Soren as Jharkhand MLA”.

CM Hemant Soren, who faces disqualification, claimed it seems like “BJP had drafted the ECI report which is otherwise sealed”. “It apparently seems that BJP leaders, including a BJP MP and his puppet journalists, have themselves drafted the ECI report, which is otherwise a sealed cover report,” Hemant Soren said, according to a report by NDTV.

Sources quoted by news agency IANS said that the letter comprising the Election Commission’s opinion on the issue was sent on Tuesday. Earlier, on Monday, a team of the poll panel concluded the hearing in the Hemant Soren mine leasing case, in which the BJP has accused him of extending himself a mining lease and sought his disqualification as an MLA.

The BJP had earlier approached the poll panel seeking Hemant Soren’s disqualification for “violating” section 9-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, which deals with disqualification for government contracts.

As per rules, if any question arises as to whether a member of a House of the Legislature of a state has become subject to any of the disqualifications, the question shall be referred to the governor whose decision shall be final.