‘BJP-JMM govt will not last more than a year’
The BJP-JMM combine is likely to get the nod for formation of a government in Jharkhand on Wednesday with the Congress indicating that it wants the political process to play itself out and feels the coalition will fall apart within a year due to internal contradictions.
“If they (BJP-JMM) form a government, it will not last more than one year given the internal contradictions of their alliance and their past record. They will muddy the water so much in this period that Congress would emerge as the natural choice of the people when elections are held thereafter,” a senior party leader said on condition of anonymity. Asked why the Congress did not go for forming a government with the JMM, the leader said there is a trust deficit with the JMM. “Even if we had formed the government with them, there is no guarantee of its stability. JMM is a party in total drift. The father says something, the son something else. Nobody knows whom to talk to and who commands the party,” the leader said.
Congress sources said that the dissolution of the state Assembly has been ruled out as the feedback from the state indicates that there would not be much of a change in the existing fractured composition of the Assembly even after fresh elections. “Let them (BJP-JMM) expose themselves. We will fill the vacuum thereafter,” the source said.
AICC in-charge of the state, K. Keshav Rao said, “It is the discretion of the government whom to invite for government formation”.
Mr Rao said people have seen the JMM-BJP government earlier also and the Congress was not interested in playing any role.
Earlier in the day, Congress core group, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, took stock of the situation in Jharkhand.
In the meeting of the core group, which lasted for over an hour, home minister P. Chidambaram is learnt to have briefed Dr Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the situation in the state and options before the UPA in the wake of BJP and JMM tying up to form a government there. Both the parties are tying up again after splitting three months back. —PTI
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