‘I am Hemant Soren Part 2’, declares CM Champai Soren during J’khand floor test

Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren on Monday lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing it of using central agencies to ‘frame’ his predecessor Hemant Soren in false cases.

“Today the whole country is seeing how injustice is being done to Hemant Soren. If you go to any village, you will find Hemant Soren’s schemes in every house,” Soren said during the floor test debate in the Jharkhand assembly.

“I proudly say that I am part-2 of Hemant Soren…,” the 67-year-old leader, sworn-in as chief minister last week, said.

“BJP tried to destabilise a democratically elected Jharkhand government,” the chief minister said in the assembly during the proceedings, also attended by ex-CM Hemant Soren.

Soren, arrested by the Enforcement Directorate as part of its money laundering probe into a land scam in Jharkhand, was brought to the assembly after being granted permission to attend the proceedings.

Soren represents the Barhait Assembly constituency in Sahibganj district.

The newly formed Champai Soren-led coalition government is scheduled to seek a trust vote.

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has 29 seats, its ally Congress has 17 and the RJD and the CPI (ML) have 1 seat in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly. With the support of 43 MLAs, the INDIA bloc has the numbers to sail through the floor test.

“The floor test will be done. We have, not less than 47,” JMM General Secretary Supriyo Bhattacharya told ANI ahead of the floor test.

Hemant Soren is currently in five-day ED custody after being arrested by the central agency. The ED has accused the JMM executive president of being a key beneficiary in the alleged land-related irregularities in Ranchi. The agency has alleged that a network of brokers and businessmen worked over the years to create fake deeds of landed parcels by forging records in the registrar offices and further selling them off.