Jharkhand: Discontent among Cong MLAs over portfolios; threaten to boycott assembly session
Congress legislators in Jharkhand over the induction of four party MLAs as ministers in the Champai Soren-led JMM government. As many as 12 MLAs of the grand-old party have threatened to boycott the upcoming assembly session from February 23 and head to Jaipur if the ministers are not replaced by new faces.
The JMM-led alliance in the state has 47 MLAs (JMM-29, Congress-17 and one RJD) in the 81-member assembly.
Unhappy over Congress' decision to give ministerial berths to Alamgir Alam, Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh again, the legislators went into a huddle at Ranchi Circuit House just before the swearing-in ceremony on Friday with plans of boycotting it.
However, persuaded by Jharkhand Congress in-charge Ghulam Ahmed Mir and PCC chief Rajesh Thakur, the MLAs reached Raj Bhavan to attend the ceremony.
«We want replacement of all the four...We the 12 MLAs are together right now barring the four ministers and Pradeep Yadav. We are waiting for the leadership to take a decision on our demand to change the four ministers.
»We want a minister from each division to cover all the five divisions in the state. We also want implementation of the 'one person, one post' rule made by Rahul Gandhi," MLA Kumar Jaimangal, alias Anup Singh, told PTI.
The Bermo legislator said if they fail to hear anything from the party's state and central leaderships soon, they will be forced to fly to the Rajasthan capital and boycott the budget session of Jharkhand Assembly.
«The Congress has 17 MLAs and the JMM (29). The
