JMM MLA arrested

High drama was witnessed today when JMM MLA Chamra Linda was arrested in connection with an arrest warrant as voting in the Rajya Sabha elections to fill two seats from Jharkhand was on today, raising questions over police action.

Two Congress MLAs, who also faced arrest in separate cases, however, voted in the election over which the party expressed relief.

Earlier, the Congress was planning to move the Supreme Court against possible arrest of its MLAs--Nirmala Devi and Devendra Singh--in what they saw was a bid to prevent them from voting in the election.

Now that its two MLAs have voted, the party has dropped plans of moving the Supreme Court, Congress legal cell head K C Mittal and former minister Salman Khursheed said in Delhi.

While Union Minister Muktar Abbas Naqvi, a candidate of the ruling BJP, seems sure of a victory, there is a keen contest  between BJP's Mahesh Poddar and JMM chief Shibu Soren's son Basant for the second seat.  A united opposition can upset BJP's calculations over the second seat.

Linda was facing an arrest warrant in a 2013 case, in which he had been allegedly involved in a scuffle at assembly gate in late evening hours, official sources said.

Soon after the incident an FIR was filed and warrant issued and pending afterwards, the sources said.

JMM leader and former Chief Minister Hemant Soren accused the BJP government of depriving the party MLAs of his fundamental right to vote, which is a democratic right, in a bid to avert defeat.