Govt succumbing to min’s pressure on ULB polls: Saryu

Ranchi: Jamshedpur (East) MLA Saryu Rai has claimed that the Hemant Soren government was trying to violate the constitutional provisions by succumbing to the demands of an incumbent minister to push the candidature of his wife and brother in the urban local body (ULB) election. In a tweet on Thursday evening, Rai claimed, “The state election commission had sent a proposal to the state government for conducting the election to 48 urban local bodies across the state. But the government sent a proposal to conduct polls in 46 out of 48 ULBs to the governor and got the latter’s assent.”
Rai also said the proposals for conducting the polls in the Mango and Jugsalai ULBs in Jamshedpur were not sent as an incumbent minister, who has been trying to field his wife and brother in these polls, had put pressure on the government.
While Rai did not name the minister, political circles in Ranchi and Jamshedpur are abuzz with speculations that health minister Banna Gupta, an MLA from the Jamshedpur (West) constituency, has been aiming to field his wife in the Mango ULB polls. Gupta did not respond to TOI’s calls when contacted.
The ULB election has been drawing controversies ever since the state election commission notified its decision to de-notify the Ranchi mayor’s post as a reserved seat for a woman from tribal communities and open it for SC candidates. Several representatives from tribal bodies met Soren earlier this week and demanded a rollback of the decision.
The Tribes Advisory Council (TAC) headed by CM Hemant Soren on Wednesday agreed not to recommend a change proposed by the Centre in its The Municipalities (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Bill of 2021. The state IPRD said the TAC decided the “recommendation of the municipal body’s committee in which tribal communities are represented will be binding on the municipal body” will be kept intact and sent to the Centre for approval.