Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren won a trust vote tabled in the state assembly on Monday, after alleging that the opposition BJP's attempt to poach MLAs prompted the move. BJP legislators staged a walk out in protest.
The ruling coalition has 49 MLAs in the 81-member assembly in which the majority mark is 41. The JMM, the largest party, has 30 MLAs, the Congress 18, and Tejashwi Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has one.
The BJP, which is the main opposition, has 26 MLAs.
Soren is currently faced with uncertainty over his continuance as chief minister, following a petition by the BJP seeking his disqualification as an MLA in an office-of-profit case.
The opposition BJP says Hemant Soren must be disqualified as an MLA over allegations that he violated election norms by giving himself a mining lease. The party has called for fresh elections and has demanded that the Chief Minister resign "on moral grounds".
If Soren is disqualified as an MLA, he cannot continue as Chief Minister.
For their part, Soren and his party JMM have accused the BJP of trying to take advantage of the crisis and lure MLAs of the ruling coalition to cross over and bring down the elected government, following the pattern seen in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.
On Sunday, the group of over 30 MLAs from the JMM-led UPA alliance in Jharkhand, who had landed in neighbouring Chhattisgarh five days ago amid allegations of a poaching bid by the Opposition BJP, returned to Ranchi.
"They want to create an atmosphere where 2 states are pitted against each other. They want to create an atmosphere of civil war and want to fan riots to win polls. As long as there is UPA Government here, such plots will not survive. [They] will get a befitting political reply," the Chief Minister said during the no-confidence session.
