Fearing coup, Jharkhand Congress plans big ministerial rejig

NEW DELHI: Suspecting that some of its ministers are also part of the aborted coup in Jharkhand legislature party, Congress is likely to go for a complete ministerial reshuffle of its quota in the coalition government headed by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), to weed out the suspects and incentivise loyalty.
Congress is also set to move for the disqualification of the three MLAs nabbed in West Bengal with a huge amount of cash. The move is designed to break their grouping with other legislators who have bought the idea of splitting the party, and also to deter others who are in league with them.

A rattled Congress believes that the arrest of the three MLAs has only deferred the coup. But it is relieved at the 10-day police custody of the “treacherous trio”, which it believes will halt the execution of the plot put in motion allegedly by influential BJP leaders. An FIR filed in Ranchi has named Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
“The party is watching the legislators. We believe the BJP gambit has only been put off for the time being,” a senior Congress leader said.

While speculations have been rife about the Jharkhand government since the wholesale split in Shiv Sena and the fall of the tripartite Maharashtra government, the arrest of the three MLAs with a large haul of money came as a shock to Congress, which did not realise that a conspiracy to break it in the state was at “such an advanced level”.
Sources said Jharkhand mirrors Maharashtra, in that the split plan was set in motion with the President’s election, in which nine Congress legislators eventually voted against the party. Not all of them have been identified. But crucially, the party suspects that some of its four ministers are also part of the plot.

A reshuffle of the Congress ministers is on the cards. The party is also looking to reward the “loyalists” with appointments to governments corporations and boards. Interestingly, a leader claimed that chief minister Hemant Soren is playing a key role in plugging the Congress cracks, an interesting development given that he and Congress have been at loggerheads lately.