Jharkhand's ruling UPA MLAs flown to Raipur, more likely to follow

As many 32 MLAs of the ruling UPA coalition in Jharkhand on Tuesday flew down to Raipur by a chartered flight from Ranchi in a bid to ring fence them from possible poaching attempts and then bussed to a nearby resort amidst tight securityA few more MLAs from JMM are expected to follow over the next few days to join the 17 Congress MLAs and 15 JMM legislators to the safe haven at Mayfair Resort some 10 kms from the capital of Chhattisgarh according to UPA sourcesThe United Progressive Alliance comprising of the JMM Congress and RJD in Jharkhand has 49 MLAs in the 81member Assembly and is supported from outside by the lone CPIML L legislatorThe flight carrying the MLAs took off from the Ranchi airport shortly after 430 pm and arrived in Raipur the capital of the Congressruled Chhattisgarh around 530 pmA total of 41 persons including 32 MLAs landed at Swami Vivekananda Airport and three buses took them from the airport to the Mayfair resort in Nava Raipur said a local Congress leaderAlso Read Women not safe in Jharkhand under Jharkhand Mukti Morcha rule BJPJharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren who came to see off his colleagues remained behind to run his governmentChhattisgarh Congress leaders Ramgopal Agrawal and Girish Dewangan also travelled to the resort with the Jharkhand MLAs The buses were escorted by pilot vehiclesSecurity has been tightened around the resort and mediapersons were not allowed insideNews channels showed a convoy of vehicles of VIPs and police entering the resort ahead of the arrival of the Jharkhand MLAsThis is for the third time in the last oneandahalf years that MLAs of Congress and its allies have been shifted to Raipur amid fears of poaching by the BJPIn June fearing crossvoting in the Rajya Sabha election the main opposition Congress in Haryana had shifted its MLAs to Raipur to protect them from an alleged poaching bidCandidates of the Bodoland Peoples Front BPF a member of the Congressled grand alliance during the last years Assam Assembly polls were similarly brought to Raipur in April 2021 ahead of counting of votesJharkhand chief minister Sorens Jharkhand Mukti Morcha JMM believes that the BJP may make a serious attempt to poach MLAs from the party and also from the ally Congress in a bid to topple the government in a manner similar to Maharashtra and there is a need to ringfence the legislators in a safe havenAlso Read Jharkhand Governor Ramesh Bais likely to send Hemant Sorens disqualification order to Election CommissionFollowing a petition by the BJP seeking Sorens disqualification from the Assembly in an office of profit case the Election Commission sent its decision to state Governor Ramesh Bais on August 25Though the ECs decision has not yet been made official Raj Bhavan sources claim the poll panel has recommended the chief ministers disqualification as an MLAIn a joint statement on August 28 UPA constituents had accused the governor of encouraging political horsetrading by deliberately delaying announcing a decision on the recommendationsA meeting of the Jharkhand cabinet is scheduled on September 1 at 4 pmThe JMM the largest party has 30 MLAs the Congress 18 legislators and the RJD one The main opposition BJP has 26 MLAs in the HouseMeanwhile in another significant development Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Rabindra Nath Mahto on Tuesday completed the hearing of a case pertaining to defection charges against senior BJP leader and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi while reserving pronouncement of a judgmentSources indicated that Marandi may lose his membersip of the Jharkhand AssemblyA complaint had been filed against Marandi in December 2020 after he merged his Jharkhand Vikas Morcha Prajatantrik party with the saffron party in February that year in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah here and was unanimously elected the leader of BJP legislative party Two other MLAs belonging to the JVM had not crossed over to the saffron party though Marandi suspended themThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever