Mr Soren had on Tuesday voted against the BJP’s cut motion in Parliament. This had led the BJP to decide to withdraw support to the JMM-led government in Jharkhand.
In a fast evolving situation in the state, senior BJP leaders, including party chief Nitin Gadkari, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and other senior leaders from the state in Delhi held over an hour long discussion to chart the course of action in the state.
Sources close to the meeting revealed that the leaders evaluated the JMM offer of giving the CM’s post to the party and the request to allow the NDA government in the state to continue.
“Before the meeting the state leadership was informed not to go to the governor and hand over the letter of withdrawal of support. Discussions with the JMM are still on to work out an acceptable formula. If everything goes well, the BJP will possibly not press for dislodging the government,” they added.
But the revised formula to save the government would first require Mr Soren to resign from his post, sources said, adding that once this happens the present partners, including the BJP, JMM, AJSU and JDU, in the government might approach the governor under the new leadership to stake claim to form the government.
Former Union minister and senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, whose name is doing the rounds for the top post in the state, has been asked to be stationed in Ranchi and follow instructions from the centre. However, sources in the party have not ruled out the possibility of Lok Sabha deputy speaker Karia Munda, former Jharkhand CM Arjun Munda and state minister Neelkanth Singh Munda being serious contenders for the post.
Meanwhile, in Ranchi party sources revealed that the issue of withdrawal of support has created a virtual rift between the BJP’s central leadership and its Jharkhand Legislature Party. This development also triggered the BJP’s central leadership re-think on its earlier decision to withdraw support.
Despite having sought two appointments from governor M.O.H. Farooq to submit the letter of withdrawal of support, BJP leaders did not submit any letter. At around 7 pm, four BJP leaders went and tendered an apology to the governor. “We apologised to the governor and told him our legislators would arrive for withdrawal of support to the present government after our party’s central leadership takes a final decision on the matter,” BJP state general secretary Ganesh Mishra told this newspaper after emerging from Raj Bhavan.
Yojna Gusai and Anand S.T. Das