Soren claims offer to become Union minister
Possibilities of the JMM breaking its ties with ally BJP and continuing to head the Jharkhand government with support from the UPA rose on Sunday as beleaguered chief minister and JMM supremo Shibu Soren indicated that he was unlikely to resign on May 25, the deadline agreed between the JMM and the BJP for a change of guard.
Even as an unruffled Mr Soren sprang another surprise on Sunday by claiming that he already had received an offer to become a Union minister in return for the UPA’s support to the JMM-led government in Jharkhand, the state’s Congress leaders spoke more candidly about possibilities of a UPA-backed government coming up to end the stalemate between the JMM and the BJP lingering for nearly a month.
With the JMM having decided to start its efforts on government formation entirely afresh, all the party’s MLAs were asked to reach Ranchi from their various locations like New Delhi, Kolkata and Bokaro to assemble for a meeting at Soren’s Ranchi home on Monday. Mr Soren himself returned to Ranchi from Bokaro on Sunday. But he told reporters in Bokaro: “I am in no hurry to resign by any date. I already have a proposal to become a minister at the Centre. It is now for me to decide what I choose”. Both he and his son Hemant Soren, leader of the JMM Legislature Party, had said in Bokaro on Saturday that the JMM was in touch with both the BJP and the Congress. JMM sources and Mr Soren’s aides said the JMM chief was “most unlikely” to resign on May 25.
Senior Congress leader Rameshwar Oraon described the JMM as a “natural ally because it (the JMM) has continuously maintained a distance from the communal forces in the past”. Jharkhand Congress spokesman Radhakrishna Kishore said: “The Congress wants neither another election after such a short span of the last one nor the imposition of President’s Rule once again. We will take our steps after the JMM breaks up with the BJP.”
Mr Kishore also refuted speculations that the Congress might have to distance itself from its ally JVM, led by former chief minister Babulal Marandi. The JVM is known to be opposed to any tieup with the JMM.
Meanwhile, in Patna, senior NDA leader and Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar appeared unhappy with the BJP over Jharkhand’s prolonged impasse. “When they (BJP) took the first decision (to withdraw support on April 28), we (JD-U) supported them because it was the only option left. But they only know what negotiations they had subsequently,” said Mr Kumar.
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