Rajya Sabha polls: J’khand allies snub Gadkari
Jharkhand’s political crisis arising from a severely-fractured Assembly struggling for the Rajya Sabha polls deepened on Monday as the BJP-led coalition government’s two allies — the JMM and the AJSU — snubbed BJP national president Nitin Gadkari’s invitation for a meeting in Delhi.
The JMM, adamant on getting its candidate Sanjeev Kumar elected to the RS at the cost of senior BJP leader S.S. Ahluwalia, reportedly managed to secure the AJSU’s support following fresh negotiations and began a three-day meeting of JMM leaders, in which its alliance with the BJP was strongly criticised.
Chief minister Arjun Munda of the BJP flew to Delhi alone for a meeting with Mr Gadkari scheduled late on Monday evening as AJSU chief Sudesh Mahto and JMM leader Hemant Soren, both deputy chief ministers, declined to accompany him. “Going to Delhi is not important for us right now. The AJSU has a very limited role to play until the BJP and the JMM clarify their stand,” said Mr Mahto, whose party has five MLAs and is being actively courted by both the BJP and the JMM.
AJSU sources said the JMM made the same offer to Mr Mahto’s party as the BJP had been considering supporting AJSU’s candidate in the Hatia Assembly bypoll slated for June 12 and fielding no JMM candidate. “AJSU, as a small regional party, feels more comfortable with the regional party JMM,” said an AJSU legislator close to Mr Mahto.
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