The Congress and the JVM may have lost the 2009 Assembly polls in Jharkhand — more so because the two pre-poll allies did not try to cobble up a coalition with the numbers needed to rule — but the two resurgent parties certainly had not allowed the ruling post-poll coalition of the JMM and the BJP to win those polls.
Four months later, when Jharkhand’s JMM-BJP-AJSU government stands moribund on the frayed cords of coalition politics and governance in the state is virtually held to ransom by a fortnight-long power impasse between the JMM and the BJP, the Congress and JVM are finally rising from their ringside seats for some solid central action.
Sources said the Opposition Congress and its ally JVM have set their eyes keenly on the wavering JMM and its leader Shibu Soren after there were increased possibilities of the JMM and the BJP failing to reach a mutually agreeable pact to continue the government. With most JMM leaders eager to form a government with “natural ally” Congress, back-channel talks resumed between the two parties to try to form an alternative government.
The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, led by former CM Babulal Marandi, which has been an unyielding thorn in the Congress’s path to ally with the JMM to form a government, has reportedly agreed to support a Congress-JMM government with outside support.
“We had so far been staunchly against being part of any government with the JMM and instead wanted President’s Rule once again. But, considering all the pros and cons in the interests of Jharkhand, we have agreed to support a Congress-JMM government from the outside provided they agree to our conditions,” said a senior JVM leader and former minister to this newspaper on Friday evening.
Foremost among the JVM’s conditions are thorough investigations into corruption charges against ministers both in the current government and the previous two UPA governments in Jharkhand, and beginning a strong anti-Maoist operation in the state with immediate effect, said the leader who is close to Mr Marandi.