After over seven hours of quizzing, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) finally arrested Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren late on Wednesday.
With this, Soren became the first sitting chief minister of Jharkhand to be taken into custody in a corruption case.
Hours before he was whisked away by ED officials, Hemant handed over his resignation to governor CP Radhakrishnan around 8.30pm, even as the governing Jharkhand Mukti Morcha announced the name of his close aide and transport minister Champai Soren as the next CM.
The arrest was a finale of the the cat-and-mouse game played by Hemant with the central agency for the last two days over his questioning in the alleged money laundering in a land scam that involved transfer and settlement of land parcels by forging records and documents.
A consensus could not be reached over the name of Hemant’s wife Kalpana Soren for the top post due to a family feud, with his sister-in-law and three-term MLA Sita Soren opposing her name, sources said. This led to six-term MLA Champai emerging as Hemant’s successor.
Equipped with a letter pledging support of 47 MLAs to Champai in the 81-member house, the governing coalition sought an appointment with the governor. However, till the time of going to press, the governor had not met the governing coalition and was silent about giving them an audience.
JMM leaders said that in case the governor refused to meet the coalition members, they are prepared to parade the MLAs before the Raj Bhavan and demonstrate their strength. “We are ready for a floor test as per time allowed by Raj Bhavan but before that, it has to pay credence to the fact that even after Hemant’s resignation, the existing coalition enjoys a majority,” said a JMM leader.
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