Munda sure of winning trust vote
September 15, 2010

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi | Nation

Chief Minister Arjun Munda will seek trust vote on the floor of the House on Tuesday. Since the Assembly is under renovation, arrangements have been made to convene the special session of the Assembly at the Administrative Training Institute. Assembly Speaker CP Singh surveyed the arrangements made at the venue on Tuesday evening. Later on Singh addressed a Press conference.

“The session of the Assembly will start at 11 am,” said the Speaker, while adding, “separate sitting arrangements have been made for the ruling coalition and Opposition members.”

The House, which had the strength of 82 members, has been reduced to 80 following the death of Congress MLA from Hatia Gopal Nath Shahdeo and nominated MLA from the Anglo-Indian community JP Galstaun. The Cabinet on Tuesday agreed on the name of Joseph Galstaun, the son on late JP Galstaun, as the nominated member.

While the BJP-JMM-AJSU coalition has the support of 45 MLAs, including two JD(U) and another two independent MLAs, the Opposition staggers with 35 headcounts. Three MLAs Ainosh Ekka (Jharkhand Party Ekka faction), Harinarayan Rai ((IND)) and Polush Surin of the JMM are currently lodged in jail.

When asked about the possibility of these MLAs to attend the special session of the Assembly, Singh said that he had no intimation about them.

Surin is facing trial for his alleged involvement in subversive act of Maoists. Ekka and Rai have been in the judicial custody from the past one year after Vigilance Bureau lodged corruption cases against them.

Meanwhile, Opposition leader Rajendra Singh held a meeting of the party legislative body on Monday evening. “We will expose the alliance before people. We will expose the BJP during the floor testing,” Congress MLA Sarfaraz Ahmed told The Pioneer.

However, party’s alliance partner JVM has already announced its intention to turn heat on the Congress also. “We will oppose the Government. But how can we forget the Congress which acted as a midwife which helped the alliance partner in the labour pain, we will equally criticise the Congress, as well as the BJP and the JMM,” said JVM leader Samresh Singh.

The Congress believes that the five MLAs of the RJD will stay in Opposition fold. Last time Shibu Soren had took rein as the CM of the BJP-JMM-AJSU coalition Government, the party had extended covered support to the Government when the RJD MLAs walked out during floor test alleging the Congress responsible for the formation of the Government.

Munda is confident to win as he controls the numbers game. “We have support of the parties which want a democratic Government for people’s welfare. We will win the majority and the Government will complete its term,” Munda said on the eve of floor test. In the afternoon, Munda also met party’s organisational secretary Saudan Singh. Munda had staked claim on September 7 to form Government and took oath as the 8th Chief Minister of Jharkhand, along with Sudesh Mahato of the AJSU and Hemant Soren of the JMM, who took oath as deputy Chief Ministers.

The alliance listed the support of following MLAs: BJP (18), JMM (18), AJSU (5), JD(U) (2) and two independents. The strength of other parties is: Congress (13), JVM (11), RJD (5), CPI (MLL) (1), Marxist Coordination Committee (1), Jharkhand Party (Ekka) (1), Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch (1) and two independents (Gita Koda and Harinarain Rai).