Bills to sack CMs: Who's on the radar?

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday moved in the Lok Sabha three bills seeking the removal of the Prime Minister, chief ministers and ministers arrested on serious criminal charges.

The One Hundred and Thirtieth Constitution Amendment Bill, 2025, the Government of Union Territories (Amendment) Bill, 2025 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2025, propose automatic removal of elected officials – Prime Minister, chief ministers, and ministers, if they are arrested and detained for 30 consecutive days on serious criminal charges.

The bills drew vociferous protests from the Opposition leaders, who said the proposed legislation is against the Constitution and federalism.

The bills have now been referred to a joint committee of Parliament.

But the question is, why was the government in a tearing hurry to introduce the bills at the fag end of the monsoon session of Parliament?

Many political leaders feel that some chief ministers of an Opposition-ruled state are on the radar of the government and want to prevent the repeat of Arvind Kejriwal, who continued to be the Delhi chief minister despite being in Tihar jail following his arrest in connection with the alleged liquor scam case. Kejriwal spent five months in jail and resigned from the chief minister's post only after getting bail.

Legal experts had then opined that there was no bar either in the Constitution or in law barring an imprisoned chief minister from continuing in office. However, some of them maintained that running a government from a jail was extremely difficult and practically not viable.

It is obvious that the BJP-led central government will not arrest its own chief minister or a minister. So, it has to be the chief minister of an Opposition-ruled state.

At present, there are eight states ruled by the Opposition parties - Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana (Congress), West Bengal (Trinamool Congress), Kerala (CPM), Tamil Nadu (DMK), Jharkhand (JMM) and Punjab (AAP).

The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has the government headed by the National Conference, with no authority, as the actual powers are vested with the Centre through the Lieutenant Governor (LG).

Hence, all these chief ministers are on the radar.

Out of the eight Opposition-ruled states, Jharkhand witnessed political turmoil in January last year when JMM leader Hemant Soren was arrested in the alleged land scam case.

He had resigned as the chief minister two days before his arrest on January 31, 2024, after spending nearly five months in prison, Soren got bail on June 28 and six days later once again assumed the reins of the state on July 4.

In the subsequent assembly elections in November, the JMM returned to power, and Soren continued to be the chief minister. The case is still pending in the court of law.

Similarly, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah has 50 corruption cases, including the MUDA land allotment scam, pending against him in the Lokayukta.

His Telangana counterpart, A Revanth Reddy, also has a case pending against him. He is an accused in the 2015 cash-for-vote scam case.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah will now have to think twice before scaling a wall and jumping a barricade to pay tributes to the 22 Kashmiris killed by the Dogra forces on July 13, 1931. The day is observed as the "Martyrs' Day" in Kashmir.

Once these bills become law, it's definitely going to be a close call for the Opposition chief ministers.