The trust deficit between Jharkhand’s ruling allies and traditional rivals BJP and JMM became evident on Sunday as the two parties fumbled for a politically appropriate and less damaging way to deal with the upcoming bypoll for the Mandu Assembly seat.
The BJP, after finally relinquishing its desire to contest in the constituency despite the JMM’s insistence on retaining the seat it earlier held, made way for its NDA ally JD(U) to field its candidate. But BJP leaders, including chief minister Arjun Munda, continue to be in an extreme dilemma over which party to support — the JMM or the JD(U).
Deputy chief minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren on Sunday met Munda to urge him to ensure the BJP’s support to JMM candidate Jaiprakash Patel, but Munda reportedly made no such promise. With the JD(U), a prominent and steadfast NDA ally, expecting the BJP’s support and the JMM demanding it for being the ruling ally in Jharkhand, the national party was dealing with a situation being described in Jharkhand as “the devil and the deep sea”. The JD(U), which has two MLAs in Jharkhand’s 81-member Assembly and one of the two is currently a minister, has fielded its state unit chief and vociferous leader Khiru Mahto for the bypoll. The AJSU, the five-MLA party in the state government, has already announced its support to the JMM candidate. Since the bypoll is necessitated by the death of sitting JMM legislator and senior leader Teklal Mahto, the JMM considers the seat its own and expects the BJP’s support.
For the BJP, disappointing either the JD(U) or the JMM could eventually snowball into a crisis that could spell this precariously standing coalition government’s fall, said sources in both the JMM and JD(U). BJP leaders, apparently looking for a way out of the emerging crisis, now prefer to keep quiet.
As many as 28 candidates have filed nomination papers for the bypoll slated for November 30.