Hemant takes swipe at PM; Oppn lashes out

Senior leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the main opposition party in the state, hit out at chief minister Hemant Soren for his swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the latter called him to take stock of the Covid-19 situation in the state.

PM Modi on Thursday night spoke to Soren, besides chief ministers of few other states. After the conversation, Soren took to social media platform Twitter and said PM Modi only did his “Mann ki Baat” during the conversation. “It would have been better had he listened to, and spoken on important matters,” the Jharkhand chief minister tweeted.

Hitting back, BJP legislature party leader Babulal Marandi termed Soren as a “failed CM”. “Hemant Soren is a failed CM. Failure in governance. Failure in tackling Covid in the state. Failure to assist people. To hide his failures, he demeans the office he holds. Wake up and work, Mr Soren. The clock is ticking,” Marandi said on Twitter.

Several other BJP leaders, including former chief minister Raghubar Das, Union tribal minister Arjun Munda, and state BJP chief and Rajya Sabha member Deepak Prakash hit out at the incumbent CM, many of them reminding Soren about the “failure” of his own government in handling the crisis in the state.

Reacting to Soren’s statement, Union health minister Dr Harshvardhan advised him to “fight Corona and not the Prime Minister”, as it’s time to take on the pandemic together.

However, leaders of other parties, including those from Congress and Shiv Sena, came out in support of the Jharkhand CM. “This tweet tells us everything about #CovidCrisisinIndia. Our Prime Minister only talks. He does not listen - not even to chief ministers (sic.),” said Congress’ national spokesperson Pawan Khera.