RANCHI: The suspense over the leader of opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly continues, even after the Budget Session began on Monday. The BJP is still undecided on who will take on this crucial role.
Notably, after the crushing defeat of the BJP in the Assembly Elections, the party leadership wants to hand over the responsibilities of the top posts in the state BJP to the young and energetic leaders, thus, the decision is getting delayed.
As the main opposition party, the BJP needs to appoint its leader of the opposition to effectively fulfill its role in the Assembly.
Notably, the Supreme Court on January 5 had directed the BJP to elect the leader of opposition within a week and inform it, according to which, the party should have done it by January 12. But, the BJP has yet to elect the Leader of Opposition even after one and a half months of the order.
This is the second consecutive term of the Jharkhand Assembly when the BJP is embroiled in the trouble of the Leader of Opposition. During the previous Assembly, Babulal Marandi was elected the leader of opposition in the Jharkhand Assembly, but due to allegations of defection against him, the speaker refused to consider him for the post.
According to party sources, the matter is getting further delayed as many of the senior leaders, who are left with no job after the befitting defeat of the party in the Assembly polls, also have to be adjusted in the limited posts it has.
Since BJP has to decide the state president and the leader of opposition simultaneously, it is becoming difficult either to adjust or sideline the top leaders in the state, they said.
“Therefore, the party leadership is taking its time before taking any decision in this regard as they cannot afford to upset any of its leaders in this time of crisis,” said a party functionary requesting anonymity. Moreover, the party is also not in a hurry as the speaker in the previous government deliberately did not take any decision on the issue although Babulal Marandi was unanimously elected leader of opposition, he added.
According to BJP insiders, State BJP President Babulal Marandi is the forerunner for the post of the leader of opposition, but the party leadership is hesitant to give him this responsibility as he could not perform well in the last Assembly polls. The other name in the discussion is veteran BJP leader and seven-time MLA from Ranchi Assembly seat, CP Singh, who was the Assembly Speaker during the Raghubar Das Government from 2014-2019. The third name in the discussion is Koderma MLA Neera Yadav.
Interestingly, former Chief Minister Champai Soren, who joined BJP ahead of the 2024 Assembly polls, has distanced himself from the race for the post of leader of the opposition.
Notably, during the previous government, the Assembly was conducted for more than 4 years without any leader of opposition even though BJP had elected Babulal Marandi for the post in October 2023, but he was never considered for it by the Assembly speaker due to the suspense over the merger of JVM (P) with BJP and the Assembly remained without a leader of opposition for four long years.
State BJP spokesperson Pradeep Sinha also asserted that the party is not in a hurry to take any decision in this regard. “The decision will be taken at the right time,” said the BJP spokesperson.
Meanwhile, during a hearing of PIL seeking appointment of several constitutional posts in the state like Lokayukt, Chairperson of State Human Rights Commission, Information Commissioner Etc, the state government informed the Jharkhand High Court that the appointments are pending due to lack of leader of opposition in the state as it requires his approval to make such appointments.