Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren meets Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi; dubs it ‘courtesy meet’

NEW DELHI: Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Tuesday met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi.

Jharkhand CM Soren dubbed his meeting as ‘a courtesy meet’ and said that both parties will soon start discussions regarding the upcoming Jharkhand Assembly elections.

Addressing media persons, after his meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and party MP Rahul Gandhi, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren said, “I was planning to meet them for a long time. It was a courtesy meeting. We will now have discussions regarding the Jharkhand Assembly elections. Everything else is fine and peaceful. We will run the government with full strength and in the future win the elections too”.

On Monday, Soren visited Sufi saint Khwaja Gareeb Nawaz in Ajmer, Rajasthan, and prayed for the well-being of his state and the country. He said, “Once again, I reached Sufi saint Khwaja Gareeb Nawaz…I prayed for the well-being of the people of this state and country”.

Recently, in what was termed as a setback to Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), senior leader of the party and former CM of the state Champai Soren joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Ranchi on August 30. On joining the BJP, the former Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) veteran expressed his faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Minister Amit Shah.

The state is set to witness an election to the 81-member Legislative Assembly later this year as the current government’s tenure ends in 2024. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce the dates. In the 2020 Assembly election the JMM won 30 seats and the Congress won 16 seats. In the recent Lok Sabha election BJP had won the largest number of seats with 8 wins, the JMM won 3 sats and the Congresss 2. (ANI)