Jharkhand CM Floor Test: After Hemant Soren was arrested by ED on January 31 in the alleged land scam case, his close aide Champai Soren went to the Governor claiming the support of 43 MLAs.
Although some MLAs did not sign the letter of support, it was said that they were still with the alliance. Today the floor test of the new government is to be held in the Assembly.
Monday is considered very important from the politics of Jharkhand. Actually, floor test of Champai Soren government of Jharkhand is to be held in the assembly on Monday. All eyes are on how the new government of Jharkhand manages to get the trust vote in the assembly. All parties have issued whips to their MLAs regarding the trust vote, while former Chief Minister of the state Hemant Soren is also arriving to participate in this process.
The proceedings of the House will start from 11 o’clock. After this the no-confidence motion will be discussed and then voting will be done. In such a situation, it is important to know what floor test i.e. confidence motion is. In fact, when any one party gets majority in the Assembly, the Governor appoints the leader of that party as the Chief Minister.
If the majority is questioned, the leader of the party claiming majority has to give a vote of confidence in the assembly and prove majority among those present and voting.
If the Chief Minister fails to prove majority in the Assembly, he has to resign. The floor test is taken to know whether the government still enjoys the confidence of the legislature. In simple language, floor test is a constitutional system, under which the Chief Minister is asked by the Governor to prove his majority in the state assembly. This happens in both Parliament and State Assembly.
If the matter is of any state then the floor test is conducted by the Speaker of that state assembly. The Governor just gives orders. There is no interference of the Governor in the floor test. Floor test is a transparent process, in which MLAs appear in the assembly and cast their votes.
Whenever floor test is to be held, all parties issue whips to their MLAs. Through this whip, parties ask their MLAs to be present in the assembly under all circumstances. If any MLA violates the whip, action is taken against him under anti-defection law.
No-confidence motion has come only twice in the Jharkhand Assembly so far. First of all, the then Leader of Opposition Stephen Marandi and MLA Furkan Ansari had informed the Assembly Secretariat on March 17, 2003 about bringing a no-confidence motion against the then Chief Minister Babulal Marandi,
but even before the no-confidence motion came, Babulal Marandi had on March 17, 2003 itself informed the Assembly Secretariat about bringing a no-confidence motion against the then Chief Minister Babulal Marandi. Had resigned from the post.
For the second time, as Leader of Opposition, Arjun Munda, MLA CP Singh and Radhakrishna Kishore had brought a no-confidence motion against the then Chief Minister Madhu Koda on 18 December 2007, which was rejected. In this, Madhu Koda government had proved its majority.
