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Here is how Congress Hijacked the democracy back in 2005

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Here is what is happening in Goa and Manipur. The BJP managed to get more votes but less seats. Now, the BJP is looking to strike a deal with smaller players to grab power in both states.

In other words, the Congress benefited from the peculiar behaviour of the electoral system and ended up with more seats with less votes. Now, the BJP is benefiting from the same peculiar behaviour of the parliamentary process and winning power even with less seats.

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Nevertheless, the Honorable Former Minister felt the need to specify that his Twitter account is intended for  “short but serious comment on contemporary issues”. Now, lets see what happened back in 2005:

Here are the results of the Assembly Election in the State of Jharkhand from Feb – March 2005 (Total of 81 seats).

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The BJP was the largest party, winning 30 seats out of the 63 seats it contested. The BJP’s pre-poll alliance partner JD(U) contested the other 18 seats and won 6. This took the NDA tally to 36 in the 81 member Assembly.

The UPA parties were far behind with JMM winning 17 and Congress winning just 9 for a total of 27 seats.

Immediately after the results, the BJP received the support of 5 other MLAs : 2 from the AJSU (All Jharkhand Students Union), the lone MLA from the Jharkhand Party and 2 other independents. This took the NDA tally to 41, which would be a clear majority.

ALSO READ: Nongthombam Biren Singh will take oath as Manipur’s next chief minister

The BJP duly staked claim to form the government and also physically presented the 5 supporting MLAs before the Honorable Governor of Jharkhand.

But then, Governor Syed Sibtey Razi did something that shocked and stunned the entire state of Jharkhand. He invited JMM supremo Shibu Soren to form the government. Soren was sworn in as CM and Stephen Marandi as Deputy CM.

To get an idea of how muddy the political waters were in Jharkhand in 2005, picture this, Stephen Marandi was a JMM rebel who had just won as an independent from Dumka, defeating Shibu Soren’s own son Hemant. In fact, Hemant Soren finished in 3rd position in Dumka with just 20,000 votes. The BJP candidate came second.

The NDA called for a statewide bandh and an agitation, but there was little it could do otherwise. The only option for them was to fly the 41 MLAs to Delhi to be paraded before President Kalam, winning a “moral victory” in public view. The date chosen for this was March 3, 2005. It was now a simple matter of getting these 41 MLAs, including the 5 precious independents, on the 90 minute flight from Ranchi to Delhi.

Deputy Chief Minister Stephen Marandi and his men stopped the chartered plane on the runway at Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport as it was about to take off. The plane was ordered to return and then raided to capture the independent MLAs on board.

So what did the UPA do once it caught hold of these 5 MLAs?

Nothing. Because the 5 MLAs weren’t on board at all.

While the Congress government was busy at Ranchi Airport, the 5 independents were actually being driven across the state border. Where were they headed?

The MLAs were actually headed to CPI(M) ruled West Bengal. The panicked UPA government deployed minimum resources on that border, convinced that the BJP would never choose a state ruled by the Left Front.

Once in Durgapur, the MLAs received further orders from Venkaiah Naidu, who made them turn towards Kharagpur Railway Station. There, at 2:30 AM on March 3, the MLAs boarded a train to Bhubaneswar. At 5 AM on March 3, they were finally safe.

Meanwhile, the BJP continued to bluff, throwing the UPA’s sniffers off the trail over and over again. Rumors were spread that the MLAs were still in Ranchi, then it was said they were in Delhi. At one point, the BJP even spread the rumor that they had been moved to Ahmedabad.

That afternoon, the 5 supporting MLAs finally caught an Indian Airlines flight from Bhubaneswar to Delhi. They were then presented before the President of India. Nine days later, Jharkhand Governor Sibtey Razi dismissed Shibu Soren from the post of Chief Minister and invited Arjun Munda to form the government in the state.

 

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