Jharkhand: JMM-Led Coalition Government Wins Trust Vote

RANCHI: In a significant development, Jharkhand's ruling JMM-led coalition government, led by incumbent Chief Minister Champai Soren secured the vote of confidence in the state assembly on February 5.

In the 81-member Jharkhand Legislative Assembly, 47 MLA's voted in favour of the confidence motion while 29 legislators voted against it. Independent MLA Saryu Roy abstained while another independent MLA Amit Yadav, Indrajit Mahto of the BJP and Ram Das Soren of the JMM were absent during the proceedings.

As a result, the ruling coalition comfortably passed the floor test with a 47 to 29 majority.

Rabindra Nath Mahato, the assembly speaker, urged the legislators in support of and opposed to the motion stand one by one at their respective places.

"(A total of) 47 votes have been received in favour of the motion. There were 29 votes against the motion. Thus, this House passes the trust vote," the Speaker said before adjourning the House till 11 am on Tuesday.

Notably, the halfway mark required to seal a majority is 41. During the voting, 27 MLA's of JMM, 17 Congress MLA's and one each of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPI(M-L) voted for the motion.

The only nominated MLA Glen Joseph Galstaun, also voted in favour of the motion, pushing the total to 47.

On the other hand, 25 MLA's of the BJP, 3 legislators of the All Jharkhand Students' Union (AJSU) and one MLA of the Ajit Pawar faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) voted against the motion.

Meanwhile, Hemant Soren, the former Chief Minister of Jharkhand, who was detained by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged land scandal, attended the floor test at the assembly. The ex-CM was granted permission by a special court in Ranchi to take part in the trust vote.

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