Following a meeting at the Chief Minister’s residence, Mr Soren and the MLAs were seen getting on buses with luggage and leaving. Sources said they are being moved to Khunti, around 30 km from Ranchi. However, some reports had earlier said the ruling coalition was also considering “friendly states” like West Bengal or Chhattisgarh.

Before their departure, Hemant Soren held a marathon third round of a meeting of legislators of the ruling alliance to chalk out a strategy to deal with the emerging scenario. There are 43 MLAs in the group that has left, sources said.

“All ruling MLAs will be sent to a single destination if the need arises. All the MLAs have come with their luggage to the Chief Minister’s house to attend the crucial meeting which is underway,” a leader had told news agency PTI.

Governor Ramesh Bais is likely to send the order of disqualification of Mr Soren as an MLA to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday, PTI reported, quoting sources in his office.

The Election Commission had sent its opinion to Governor Bais on Thursday on a plea seeking that Mr Soren be disqualified as an MLA for violating electoral norms by extending a mining lease to himself. The BJP, the petitioner in the case, had sought Mr Soren’s disqualification.

“Since our opponents are unable to match us politically, they are misusing constitutional institutions. But we are not worried… It’s the people who gave us the chair… Do what you can; my work for my people can never stop,” Mr Soren tweeted on Friday.

The Congress has said that it will back Mr Soren as the consensus candidate. “Our coalition is standing strong. We will back Hemant Soren as the Chief Minister,” Alamgir Alam, Congress MLA, said.

While Mr Soren is not barred from contesting elections, the BJP has called for fresh polls and asked the Chief Minister to resign “on moral grounds”

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey tweeted today: “According to Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) sources, some MLAs reached Chhattisgarh at 2 am. Most of the MLAs are reluctant to go and are waiting for the orders of senior JMM leader Basant Soren. Some buses are parked in Ranchi for MLAs.”

The ruling coalition has 49 MLAs in the 81-member Assembly. The JMM, the largest party, has 30 MLAs, the Congress 18 legislators, and Tejashwi Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) one. The main opposition BJP has 26 MLAs. Minister Mithilesh Thakur had claimed that the ruling coalition has “50 MLAs (including the Speaker, which can go up to 56” while asserting that they had learnt “resort politics” from the BJP.