'Raise Jharkhand Assembly strength'

 Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Shashank Sekhar Bhokta on Thursday backed a move to increase the House strength, but did not think that it would stem political instability. “I am in favour of increasing seats of the Assembly. But I don’t agree that merely increasing seats would stem political instability,” Bhokta said.

“There is political stability in some states which have less number of seats than Jharkhand while there is instability in a couple of others where the seats are more than our state. So increase of seats is no guarantee for political stability,” he said.

He was replying to a query on Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh writing to Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde seeking steps to increase the the strength of the 82-member House (including a nominated MLA).

Ramesh believed lesser number of seats was one of the reasons behind political instability in Jharkhand that witnessed nine governments in 13 years.

Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) chief and former Chief Minister Babulal Marandi said, “Instead of giving statements, Jairam Ramesh should ensure bringing it before the Union Cabinet at the earliest.”

BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Raghuvar Das said Jharkhand Assembly had already passed a resolution twice in that regard and the “Centre should act now”.