Several NDA MLAs were seen arriving at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Ranchi in Jharkhand on Tuesday with just days to go for the Rajya Sabha elections. While many of them said the aim of the exercise was just to “chat”, undergo training and stay together, the move raised questions about whether there were any concerns of poaching.
According to BJP MLA Roshan Lal Choudhary, the legislators will stay at the hotel for 48 hours and will return only after casting their votes in the Rajya Sabha elections on June 18. However, BJP MLA Satyendra Tiwari maintained that no one was forced to stay and the exercise was just a show of unity.
“This is not a kidnapping. No one was pressured to go; everyone came willingly. We will spend two days – forty-eight hours – together and enjoy delicious meals. Once we reach there, we just send things. Everyone here is happy,” Tiwari said during a media interaction.
Resort politics are common in India, often emerging just before elections, a sensitive period when leaders are more likely to jump ship.
How do the numbers stack up in Jharkhand
According to news agency PTI, the BJP-led NDA has 24 members in the Jharkhand Assembly, 21 from the BJP and one each from the LJP (Ram Vilas), AJSU and JD(U). However, this number is four votes short of the 28 first preference votes needed to win the Rajya Sabha polls.
The India Bloc beats this number by a large margin, as there are 56 MLAs in the state, of which 34 are from the JMM, 16 from the Congress, four from the RJD and two from the CPI(ML) Liberation.
When asked about the gap between four MLAs on Tuesday, BJP leader Babulal Marandi told reporters: “As I said, there are 81 MLAs; I have repeatedly mentioned that there are 81 votes. These 81 voters will then exercise their choice and cast their votes for the candidate.”
On Thursday, June 18, two Rajya Sabha seats from Jharkhand will go to the polls. One fell vacant after the death of JMM co-founder Shibu Soren, and the other due to the expiration of BJP member Deepak Prakash’s term on June 21.
“They don’t trust their MLAs.”
When the NDA shifted its MLAs to Radisson Blu in Ranchi, JMM Rajya Sabha MP Mahua Maji said that the move indicated that the NDA had no confidence in their MLAs. “Look at our party, the Prime Minister trusts our MLAs so much that he has rejected the proposal to change them. The JMM MLAs will vote as per the party’s instructions and make our candidates win…,” Majhi told news agency ANI.
According to PTI, a majority of the NDA MLAs were shifted to the hotel and BJP president Naveen Jaiswal said the decision to hold a meeting and rehearsal for the poll exercise was taken during the NDA legislature meeting on Monday.
