Hemant Soren floor test: How numbers stack up in Jharkhand Assembly? Who has the edge?

Hemant Soren floor test: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has moved confidence motion in the state assembly on July 8. Hemant was sworn in as the Chief Minister on July 4 after walking out of jail on bail. He replaced Champai Soren, who stepped down five months after assuming office.

As things stand, the 81-member Jharkhand assembly’s effective strength is 76 after four MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha, and one MLA resigned before joining BJP this March. Thus 39 is the majority mark in the present house.

The Numbers

Of the 76 MLAs, 45 are aligned with the INDIA bloc led by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). Of the 45 MLAs in the ruling alliance, the JMM has 27 MLAs, the Congress has 17 and the RJD has one.

The Congress and the RJD are the other two allies in the government. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA has 30 MLAs in the house.

“We are poised to win the floor test convincingly,” Congress spokesperson Satish Paul Munjini told reporters. Hemant had staked claim on July 3 to form govt before Governor CP Radhakrishnan. Hemant had claimed to have support of 44 MLAs.

Hemant Soren was granted bail by the Jharkhand High Court on June 28 after spending five months in jail. Champai Soren, who had replaced Hemant when he went to jail in February, resigned from the post just before Hemant took oath last week.

Why Jharkhand matters for INDIA bloc?

Assembly elections will be held in Jharkhand, along with Maharashtra and Haryana later this year. But unlike Maharashtra and Haryana, the two NDA-ruled states, Jharkhand is the state where INDIA bloc has to defend its government.

The ruling coalition has to fight anti-incumbency to seek re-election in the state. In 2019, when JMM won just one Lok Sabha seat in general election, it did well in assembly polls and unseated the BJP government led by Raghubar Das.