Jharkhand talks fail to end crisis

[1]

Jharkhand’s political riddle refuses to emerge from the depths it sank following the BJP’s threat of withdrawing support from the JMM-led coalition government over a fortnight ago. A crucial meeting between former BJP chief minister Arjun Munda and beleaguered current chief minister and JMM chief Shibu Soren failed to make any headway on Sunday.
Mr Munda, who has emerged as the BJP’s consensus candidate to be the Jharkhand’s next chief minister after prolonged deliberations within the party, arrived in Ranchi from Delhi on Sunday and held closed-door discussions with both Soren and his son Hemant Soren, leader of the JMM Legislative Party. But sources in both parties said the 45-minute meeting at Mr Soren’s residence ended without any agreement between them over power-sharing.
Sources said Soren Senior, who was supposed to step down once the BJP named its chief ministerial candidate, was present at this meeting for only about 10 minutes. The discussions were mostly held by Mr Hemant Soren and Mr Munda, who is currently the MP from Jamshedpur and the BJP’s national vice-president.
The BJP central leadership had authorised Mr Munda on Saturday to hold talks with the JMM leaders in Ranchi to bring about an early solution to the vexed power-sharing negotiations between the two parties. Mr Munda, who began his political career as a JMM leader before he joined the BJP, was expected to break the ice with the JMM leaders, who have proved unreliable after several rounds of talks they held with senior BJP leaders in Delhi and Ranchi in the past fortnight.
“The BJP has unofficially named Munda for the chief minister’s post after taking into consideration the JMM’s insistence on a tribal leader to head the BJP-led government with the JMM’s support. We had hoped today’s meeting would achieve some headway, but it was futile,” said a senior BJP leader in Ranchi.
Sunday’s talks centred around the JMM’s latest demands that the party be allowed to head the state government for the first half of the Assembly’s remaining tenure and that it be given five Cabinet berths along with the Speaker’s post, currently held by the BJP’s C.P. Singh.
“These were too much for Munda to agree without consulting the BJP leadership once again,” said a JMM leader.