New Delhi: The arrests of three Jharkhand Congress MLAs in West Bengal on Saturday, July 30 after stashes of cash amounting to “almost Rs 50 lakh” were found in their vehicle, is another addition to the Narendra Modi-era Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ambition to take over state governments by toppling those run by opposition parties. In this regard, the Modi regime has been competing only with the Indira and Rajiv Gandhi eras of the Congress. While the Maha Vikas Aghadi government was toppled earlier this year, those led by Kamal Nath in Madhya Pradesh and H.D. Kumaraswamy also fell in recent years.Additionally, this episode has put the needle of suspicion on Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. It is alleged that the BJP leader bribed these MLAs with the mountain of cash and approached at least one other Congress MLA in that state through them, in order to bring the curtain down on the Hemant Soren government. While a local court in West Bengal, on July 31, remanded the trio to police custody till August 10, and the state police reportedly transferred the case to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), in Jharkhand, a parallel investigation is to follow. Fellow Congress MLA Kumar Jaimangal filed a first information report (FIR) at a Ranchi police station claiming that the arrested MLAs were acting at the behest of Sarma. Lodging the police complaint in Ranchi against MLAs Irfan Ansari, Rajesh Kachhap and Naman Bixal Kongari on charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and sedition, Jaimangal stated that he was offered Rs 10 crore to topple the coalition government of the Congress and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). He complained that the three MLAs “are calling me to Kolkata and offering me money and they are promising Rs 10 crores per MLA.”“Shri Irfan Ansari and Rajesh Kachchap want me to come to Kolkata and then take me to Guwahati where, according to (Ansari), he will make me meet Shri Himanta Biswa Sarma who will give me assurance of a definite ministerial berth, apart from the money,” Jaimangal said in his complaint to the Ranchi Police.“Irfan Ansari has told me that he has already been promised (the) health ministry in the new government. He also told me that he shall be reaching Kolkata yesterday afternoon (July 30),” the police complaint further read.As per West Bengal Police, the three MLAs had arrived in Kolkata with the money from Guwahati. This development comes close on the heels of the Maharashtra episode, where Sarma facilitated the stay of dozens of Shiv Sena MLAs at a five-star hotel in Guwahati while they were rebelling against the Uddhav Thackery government and helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ultimately unseat it. The Jharkhand case indicates that the BJP national leadership is, perhaps, making optimum use of Sarma, a former Congressman who is out to solidify his position in the new party – and offering him the space to do so with tangible benefits. Also read: From Uddhav Thackeray’s Man On Ground To A Rebel, What’s Next For Eknath ShindeThese two episodes perhaps also explain the top BJP leadership’s decision to make Sarma the Assam chief minister – a chair he had been eyeing since his time in the Congress – by removing incumbent chief minister Sarbananada Sonowal after the 2019 assembly polls in the northeastern state. Significantly, Jaimangal’s allegations came soon after the presidential elections, which had witnessed cross-voting among Congress legislators in Jharkhand. While the Congress seemingly does not have no clue if its house had been in order in those polls, the party acted to suspend the trio immediately. Further, top national leaders of the party, like Jairam Ramesh and Pawan Khera, went all out against the BJP in New Delhi, accusing it of killing democracy in India. झारखंड में भाजपा का ‘ऑपरेशन लोटस’ आज की रात हावड़ा में बेनकाब हो गया। दिल्ली में ‘हम दो’ का गेम प्लान झारखंड में वही करने का है जो उन्होंने महाराष्ट्र में एकनाथ-देवेंद्र(E-D) की जोड़ी से करवाया।— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 30, 2022Jaimangal’s allegations against Sarma haven’t come out of the blue, though. A lot has been happening in Jharkhand which indicates that the JMM-led coalition government has been under pressure for some time. The Soren government has been battling the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on corruption charges via the chief minister’s close aide, Pankaj Mishra. The Election Commission, too, at the behest of the governor Ramesh Bais, is looking at whether Soren should be disqualified for allegedly owning a mining lease. Soren’s aide, Pankaj Mishra, after appearing before the Enforcement Directorate court in Ranchi on July 26. Photo: PTI.The Soren government has two more years to go but the heat is already on for a change. Holding up the fact that coalition governments in Jharkhand have been unstable since 2000, and that the BJP’s Raghubar Das (2014-19) was the only chief minister since then to complete a full term, the Indian Express in a timely editorial on August 1, underlined, “This time a combination of forces – not least the allies themselves – seem to be working against the JMM-led coalition government, which has two more years in office. The backdrop, of course, is the overreaching ambition and organisational might of the BJP that is leaving no stone unturned to regain power in states the party had lost.” It further highlighted, “Central agencies such as the ED and the CBI under the BJP government at the Centre seem to be closely watching opposition MLAs. The cloud of corruption constantly hovers over a resource-rich, under-developed Jharkhand, where politicians have been caught with their hands in the till. A shift in political allegiance could possibly offer relief from the heat of investigations.” Importantly, what the editorial accurately emphasised was that coalition politics is at a crossroads across the country as the BJP works to expand its footprint. “The BJP will use all the resources at its command and it surely doesn’t help regional parties if they have skeletons of their own in the coalition cupboard,” it pointed out. Having taken action against its MLAs, the Congress national leadership, for now, is standing by its ally. Sarma, on his part, denied Jaimangal’s allegations, stating that his action must have been “under duress”. A clever politician whose every public move or media statement is aimed at achieving an end to his benefit, Sarma tried putting some liability of the alleged fiasco around the MLAs on Jaimangal, hinting that he too might have been in touch with him directly. “It is strange that he (Jaimangal) says he needs three MLAs to reach me, and to even come to Guwahati. He has known me for a very long, so he doesn’t need any middlemen to reach me. In the FIR, it seems like he doesn’t even know me. So he must have written it under duress,” Sarma told reporters. Also read: Assam Has a New CM – Himanta Biswa Sarma. What Does It Spell For the Future of Assam Politics?In practical terms though, the ball is now in the courts of the ruling Mamata Banerjee and Soren governments and it remains to be seen whether police from these states issue any summons to the Assam chief minister to clear the air. In tandem, it is yet to be seen how the ED, under Union home minister Amit Shah, tightens the noose on Soren’s aide, Mishra. For now, from media statements, it is clear that Sarma is trying to project himself as the mediator between Congress MLAs from different states and the national leadership of the BJP, thus projecting himself as a ‘kingmaker’ and a force to be reckoned with within his party. But the point to ponder is: if this was an ambitious move steered by him; the fact that it got exposed, as claimed by Congress leaders, only highlights that Modi-Shah’s new reliable handyman (like Buta Singh in the Rajiv Gandhi era) is not so infallible either.
