Has rebellion in Shiv Sena alarmed Hemant Soren?

Jharkhand chief minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) president Hemant Soren has started taking certain precautionary measures to prevent a Shiv Sena-like revolt in his party.

Soren is visibly alarmed by the rebellion in the Shiv Sena that brought down the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra.

The vertical split in the Shiv Sena has surprised all the regional parties as no one thought that there would be such a revolt in a party led by the son of Bal Thackeray.

In fact, Congress was considered the weakest link in the MVA coalition.

Similarly in Jharkhand, the vulnerability of legislators belonging to the grand old party had often been talked about.

Reports suggesting dissension in Congress have appeared in the media quite frequently since the coalition government took over in December 2019.

But this division within the Congress is what has saved the government so far. On many occasions, its political rivals have failed to break the Congress or poach its legislators given that many of them don't see eye to eye with each other.

That has been a blessing in disguise for Soren but at the same time, his worry is that some JMM legislators are susceptible to poaching.

Since the ouster of Uddhav Thackeray, Soren has stepped up his meetings with party colleagues and legislators. Basically, an attempt to keep them in good humour.

Soren has also for the immediate future bought peace with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). His meeting with union home minister Amit Shah resulted in the JMM announcing its support for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) presidential candidate Draupadi Murmu, a tribal from Odisha and a former Jharkhand governor.

Soren was caught in a dilemma over whether to support Murmu or former union finance minister Yashwant Sinha, who hails from Jharkhand, which is a tribal-dominated state.

In the end, he opted for Murmu to not only save his government for the time being but also seek a breather in an office-of-profit case being heard by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

Jharkhand governor Ramesh Bais had referred a representation he had received in February this year by the BJP to the ECI after which the poll body in May issued a notice to Soren to explain his position.

The BJP and former Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das had alleged that Soren misused his office by allocating a stone quarrying lease on government land in Ranchi to himself while he was the minister in-charge of mines in 2021, which "prima facie violates" certain provisions of the Representation of People's Act.

Soren will complete three years in office in December and it will be interesting to see if he is able to keep intact his government, party, and the coalition and prevent a Maharashtra-like change of guard in Jharkhand.