Marandi completes formality, wins trust vote

RANCHI, NOV 23: Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi gained legitimacy to run the Jharkhand government on Thursday after he won the co...

RANCHI, NOV 23: Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi gained legitimacy to run the Jharkhand government on Thursday after he won the confidence vote by resounding 43-34 verdict in the 80-member state Assembly. Marandi moved the trust motion nearly a week before the deadline set by Governor Prabhat Kumar.

Marandi’s victory had become a fait accompli after the 40-member National Democratic Alliance (comprising BJP — 32, Samata Party — 5 and JD(U) — 3) together with two members of the UGDP, two Independents and one nominated MLA turned up to vote in his favour even as two yet-to-be-identified MLAs preferred to remain absent during counting of votes.

“We haven’t yet figured out who the absentee MLAs were,” admitted Leader of the Opposition Stephen Marandi, minutes after the Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari announced the result.

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Earlier during the day, before the Governor arrived to address the Assembly, about 21 Opposition MLAs including Mahendra Singh (CPI-ML), Stephen Marandi (JMM), Sabba Ahmad (RJD), held placards reading: Aropit rajyapal wapas jao (Tained Governor go back) and Abua dishum, abua rajya (our state, our rule) and shouted slogans against Kumar.

However, when the Governor arrived and inspected the Guard of Honour by the by the BMP jawans, the slogan-shouting members went inside the Assembly Hall, only to raise more slogans when the Governor entered the House.

Moving the confidence motion, the Chief Minister attacked the Congress for not doing anything to help create Jharkhand in spite of being in power at the Centre and in Bihar for more than four decades.

Opposing the motion, Stephen Marandi said the creation of Jharkhand was the result of a long struggle by the people of this region and “the NDA Government therefore, has no right to run the affairs of the new state”.

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Reply to the charges, Marandi said the NDA constituents contested the last Assembly polls in undivided Bihar on a common manifesto in which the statehood of Jharkhand figured prominently.

“The creation of Jharkhand should be looked upon as a move on our part to honour our commitment to the people of this region,” he said, and added that his government would function in accordance with the hopes and aspirations of the Jharkhandi people.

BJP MLA Yamuna Singh, while speaking in favour of the motion, admitted to the role played by the Congress and the RJD in the passage of the Bihar Reorganisation Bill (Jharkhand Bill), 2000, by Parliament, and said the BJP and its allies in the NDA deserved the highest credit because they initiated concrete legislative steps for the creation of Jharkhand and ensured that a tribal became its first Chief Minister.

Opposing the motion, RJD Legislature Party leader Girinath Singh said the NDA government would fall because of its own contradictions. “The induction of all non-BJP members into Marandi’s council of ministers in itself shows how worried the alliance is to keep its flock together,” he said.