Governor CP Radhakrishnan today denied allegations made by former Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the State Assembly and his party at different forums that the Raj Bhawan was involved in Soren’s arrest by ED. The governor affirmed that all democratic norms were strictly followed in the formation of a new government and while submitting his resignation Hemant Soren had written in his letter that he was resigning because he was being arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.
Interacting with select media persons at Raj Bhawan on Thursday the Governor said that on January 31 the Raj Bhawan was informed by both the ED and the Chief Minister’s office that Hemant Soren was going to resign. “ED had called and said that they have arrested the Chief Minister and he is requesting for his constitutional obligation of resigning. The CMO also called and informed us that he is going to resign today. I was waiting for 3 hours … then the Chief Secretary called us and said he is the CM he cannot come alone. Please allow some of our senior ministers to come along with him. So, I said okay let me take 3 people, but again they requested to allow more people and we allowed more. We never said who should come, who should not come,” said the Governor.
“They did not inform us that they are coming to Raj Bahwan to claim the right to form the government. Hemant Soren asked me to accept the resignation letter. That time 2-3 people were standing here. I don’t know whether they were from ED or not. Then immediately they said that they are claiming to form the next government. Without informing us earlier they gave me the claim letter,” said the Governor.
“They claimed the support of 47 legislators and presented the letter of support of 43 MLAs. I told them that I will call them tomorrow, it will take little time to reach a conclusion, but we did not take much time. I called Champai Soren the next day at 11 PM and handed over the letter of invitation to form the government. We also gave them sufficient time of 10 days to prove majority in the House. They said we want to take oath tomorrow morning and we agreed on that also. We never asked them to prove their majority in 24 hours. So where is the question of the wishes of Raj Bhawan?” said the Governor.
He further said that every democratic norm was very strictly followed by the Raj Bhawan. “The former CM has himself written in his letter that he was taken into custody by ED, so he wanted to resign. I don’t even know the ED officials, I don’t even recognise them,” he said.
On the question of taking legal consultation the Governor said, “We took legal advice on what is to be done. This was a peculiar situation in which the CM was not seen… it came in the newspapers that he was not traceable,” he said.
Reacting to the allegation of Hemant Soren that Raj Bhawan played a role in his arrest, the Governor said, “If you are going on telling a lie that has to be explained. Did the Raj Bhawan ask him (Soren) to resign? It is the CMO that told us the CM is going to resign. In his letter he has clearly said I am resigning as I have been taken into custody by ED. Was Nitish Kumar taken into custody by ED? Did Nitish Kumar disappear for two days?”
The Governor said that if he had not taken even 26 hours people would have started asking other questions and raising fingers at Raj Bhawan’s closeness with the former CM. “It was a peculiar situation, we had to take certain legal advice from the experts that in this type of extraordinary situation what has to be done,” he said.
