INDIA VOTES 2024: Jharkhand, Bihar witness two high-profile exits

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, March 19

The eastern states of Bihar and Jharkhand witnessed two high-profile exits on Tuesday, intensifying core Lok Sabha election feuds.

While three-term Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MLA and party founder Shibu Soren’s daughter-in-law Sita Soren resigned from the parent party and joined the BJP, Union Minister Pashupati Paras, brother of late Ram Vilas Paswan, resigned as Union Minister a day after BJP-led NDA’s snub in Bihar.

Sita Soren, a vocal lawmaker from Jama in Jharkhand’s Dumka, in her resignation letter to the JMM founder Shibu Soren today said she was anguished over progressive alienation by the party and the family and had decided to quit JMM and resign as MLA.

Sita’s resignation comes amid possibilities that former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s wife Kalpana may become CM. Hemant Soren is in jail in an alleged land scam.

Losing the legacy of the JMM, Sita Soren joined the BJP in New Delhi minutes after resigning from her parent party. Sita is the wife of late Durga Soren, the elder son of JMM founder.

The BJP may field Sita Soren in Jharkhand Lok Sabha poll. So far, 11 of the state’s 14 candidates have been named by the BJP.

In Bihar meanwhile, Union Minister Pashupati Paras, brother of late Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, resigned from the council of ministers a day after BJP-led NDA chose to ally with his nephew Chirag Paswan-led LJP faction which got five of the state’s 40 seats. Paras alleged “sidelining and humiliation” as he quit.

Only yesterday, the BJP decided to contest 17 seats, JD(U) 16, LJP-Chirag Paswan 5; HAM and RLM 1 each, leaving Paras in the cold.

The royal snub was an indicator that the BJP trusts Chirag as the inheritor of Ram Vilas Paswan’s legacy. The Paswans constitute nearly 5 per cent of the vote in Bihar.

Accused of taking bribe in 2012

Sita Soren was recently in news when the SC overturned the 1998 judgment granting immunity from prosecution to bribe-taking MPs and MLAs for speaking or voting in a certain manner in the House. Accused of taking bribe in a Rajya Sabha election from an Independent candidate in 2012, Sita had moved court seeking relief under the 1998 law

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