Results and trends from recent bypolls across eight assembly seats in India show wins for MNF in Mizoram, BJP in Jammu and Kashmir, and Congress leading in Telangana and Rajasthan.
'He was not highly educated. He was Class 10 passed but his intelligence was high. He could impress any group of people.'
"Hemant Soren repeatedly ignored my advice and eventually landed in jail... he has always been surrounded by wrong advisors," Hembrom, a lawmaker from Borio seat in Sahibganj district, told reporters.
Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren expanded his cabinet on Thursday, inducting 11 new ministers, including six first-timers and two women. The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi. The new ministers include six from the JMM and four from the Congress. One minister is from the RJD. The expansion comes after the JMM-led alliance won the recent assembly elections with a comfortable majority. The cabinet expansion is expected to give the government a fresh impetus to push its agenda and accelerate development in the state.
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
The hotly debated 1998 JMM bribery case judgment, which protected former Union minister Shibu Soren from prosecution, was overturned by a seven-judge bench on Monday, ironically following a petition by his MLA daughter-in-law Sita Soren.
Bypolls are due in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
Ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha legislator Sita Soren, the daughter-in-law of former Chief Minister Shibu Soren, on Tuesday surrendered to a court in Ranchi in a case of horse trading registered by CBI after the Election Commission rescinded the original notification for the 2012 Rajya Sabha polls for Jharkhand.
Voting for by-elections to seven assembly constituencies of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Tripura, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, started on Tuesday at 7 am.
The Central Industrial Security Force, tasked with the security of the ED officials, are using high-resolution body cameras to keep track of activities around Soren's residence, he said.
A notice, uploaded on the apex court website, said the bench will hear the matter on October 4.
Kalpana said her husband is not with the family on their wedding anniversary but she will not be emotional as he will "defeat conspiracy and emerge as a winner".
Seventy-seven MLAs were present in the assembly during the voting.
Legislators of the ruling coalition partners in Jharkhand expressed solidarity with the Hemant Soren government on Wednesday and said the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha leader will continue as the chief minister.
"I am neither afraid nor worried. Rather I am emerging stronger. If people of Jharkhand wish, opponents will not find a place to hide," Soren said while addressing JMM workers near his residence.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed senior advocate P S Patwalia as amicus curiae to assist it in examining whether an MP or MLA can claim immunity from criminal prosecution for taking a bribe to make a speech or vote in the legislative assembly or Parliament.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed to re-examine its 1998 judgment granting MPs and MLAs immunity from prosecution for taking bribe to make a speech or vote in Parliament or state legislatures.
While the opposition alliance is putting up a united front in Ghosi constituency in Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand's Dumri, Dhanpur and Boxanagar in Tripura and Uttarakhand's Bageshwar, its constituents are contesting against each other in Dhupguri in West Bengal and Puthuppally in Kerala.
The Supreme Court said on Wednesday it will examine whether the immunity granted to lawmakers from prosecution for taking bribe to make a speech or vote in Parliament and state legislatures extends to them even if criminality is attached to their actions, as it began reconsideration of its 1998 judgement in the JMM bribery scandal that rocked the country 25 years ago.
Bribery can never be a subject matter of immunity and parliamentary privilege is not meant to place a lawmaker above the law, the Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court which reserved its verdict on reconsideration of its judgment of 1998 when it held that MPs and MLAs enjoy immunity from prosecution for taking bribe to make a speech or cast a vote in legislature.
High voter turnout was recorded in most of the seven assembly constituencies in six states where by-elections were held on Tuesday.
Basant Soren, the brother of Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has given an awkward statement over his absence from the state during the recent political crisis.
Stating that the ruling coalition is ready to face any situation, Congress leader and minister Banna Gupta requested the governor to clear the confusion.
Soren also claimed that his Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma indulged in "purchase" of Jharkhand MLAs.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday constituted another five-judge Constitution bench which will hear five crucial cases including the challenge to the central government's 2016 decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes.
Many lawmakers of the party, which is the main opposition in Jharkhand, sported saffron outfits and saffron angavastram with 'Jai Shri Ram' printed on them.
The fate of 237 candidates, including two ministers and a former CM, will be decided in this final phase.
Major political parties in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday ensured victory for all their candidates despite cross voting in Rajya Sabha biennial polls in which senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal emerged triumphant against the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Independent socialite Preeti Mahapatra.
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