Trust vote a political stunt to divert attention: State BJP prez

Ranchi: The state BJP president, Deepak Prakash, on Tuesday lashed out at chief minister Hemant Soren and the ruling alliance government of JMM-Congress-RJD for moving a confidence motion in the state assembly on Monday and claimed it was a political stunt to divert the people’s attention from the pressing issues Jharkhand is currently facing.
Talking to TOI on Tuesday, Prakash said crimes against women are rising while a drought-like scenario is plaguing the state and the government’s failure to deliver on the promises of a residents’ policy based on the land records of 1932 is also haunting the alliance.
“The law and order of this state has gone for a toss. The government is indulging in appeasement politics and this political stunt is being done to divert the people’s attention from the raging issues. That is the reason why they moved their MLAs to Raipur and their stay was funded by the coal and liquor mafia. Nowhere in the country did a ruling party move their own MLAs to a resort,” he claimed.
Prakash said BJP has been asking questions on corruption and other pressing issues of the state and has not attempted to topple the Soren government by trying to poach JMM and Congress MLAs.
“Our party is not involved. The three Congress MLAs were implicated by their own people due to an internal conflict within the Congress party,” Prakash said, denying the horse-trading charges.
“This government is indulging in appeasement politics. As many as 1,800 schools are observing Fridays as their weekly holidays in place of Sundays. Did it happen in our time? No. As many as 5,400 cases of crime were registered during the tenure of this government. Acid is being thrown at girls of the state and this government is turning a blind eye to it. Jharkhand recorded the most number of communal incidents during the 32 months of the Soren government. Did it happen in our time? No,” Prakash said.
Prakash, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, defended Godda MP Nishikant Dubey and his statements on social media. “This government has developed a phobia for Deepak Prakash, Babulal Marandi and Nishikant Dubey. Nishikant is a fearless lawmaker who writes based on his perceptions and there is nothing wrong with it. Now, a sedition case has been lodged against the DC,” Prakash said.
When asked if BJP is willing to forge an alliance with JMM in a changed scenario, Prakash said, “This is a hypothetical question and I will not answer it. But we are following the political developments closely and we will chalk out our plans after holding regular meetings with our core committee.”