New Delhi: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi is reviewing the Jharkhand unit after two events in July sent alarm bells ringing in the AICC and may rejig party ministers in the coalition government. “Right now, an internal probe is on. However, if it is needed, the state ministers can also be changed. There is no issue with that,” Pande told this channel.
The Congress has four ministers in the coalition government headed by chief minister Hemant Soren of JMM. They are finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, rural development minister Alamgir Alam, who is also the CLP leader, health minister Banna Gupta and agriculture minister Badal Patralekh. According to sources, two ministers, including Banna Gupta, could be replaced with MLAs Purnima Singh and Pradeep Yadav soon.
In the 81-member Jharkhand assembly, the ruling coalition has 47 MLAs, with JMM- 30, Congress- 18 and RJD-1 respectively. Party insiders said the Congress managers had smelled a rat in the Jharkhand unit when around 9 MLAs voted in favour of the NDA Presidential nominee Droupadi Murmu on July 18 though they had been asked by the party to vote for the joint opposition candidate Yashwant Sinha.
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Later, several of the lawmakers had skipped protests against ED summons for Sonia Gandhi, provoking AICC in charge Avinash Pande to order a probe into the lapses. However, the arrest of 3 MLAs with huge cash on Saturday by West Bengal police has forced the party managers to review the entire state unit and could lead to a rejig of the ministerial berths.
Sources said the arrest of the three MLAs -- Irfan Ansari from Jamtara, Rajesh Kachhap from Khijri, and Naman Bixal Kongari from Kolebira, who were suspended by Sonia Gandhi on Sunday and the subsequent internal investigations have revealed that the detained lawmakers had been in touch with five other colleagues for a while. The arrests have started a war of words within the state unit amid reports that several of the MLAs are unhappy with the present state leadership. Party insiders explained this unease as jostling for political space among the lawmakers who have been on the sidelines since 2019 when the coalition government was formed.
Further, the cross-voting and cash recovery episodes have raised suspicion among the Congress managers that the BJP might be fishing in the troubled waters in Jharkhand where Pande has charged the saffron party with trying to destabilize an elected government. The ongoing interview has also forced the AICC to review the roles of the four ministers, who have in the past faced charges from state leaders of not pursuing the Congress’ interests aggressively, said party insiders.
