NEW DELHI: Senior Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) leader Champai Soren took oath as Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Friday, two days after former CM Hemant Soren was arrested by the ED in connection with an alleged money laundering case related to a land scam.
The new Chief Minister has been asked by Governor CP Radhakrishnan to prove his majority in the 81-member Assembly within 10 days. The 67-year-old Champai Soren is backed by 47 MLAs from the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD alliance, many of whom took oath with their new leader today.
Meanwhile, the MLAs of the ruling JMM-led alliance in Jharkhand have been put up at the Leonia Hotels on the outskirts of Hyderabad in the Congress-ruled Telangana ahead of the trust vote. The MLAs, who landed at the Begumpet airport on Friday in two flights, were taken to the resort in luxury buses.
Nearly 40 legislators arrived at the Begumpet airport, Congress sources said. A senior coalition leader said in Ranchi that the decision to shift the MLAs to Hyderabad was taken considering that the opposition BJP might make attempts to “poach” them.