In Jharkhand’s fractured politics in the aftermath of the BJP’s withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren-led coalition government on Monday, the state’s first chief minister and leader of the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), Babulal Marandi, holds the keys to the formation of the next government.
The JVM(P) is an ally of the Congress and has 11 legislators. With the Congress, which has 14 legislators, likely to support the 18-legislator JMM to keep the Shibu Soren-led government afloat and evade either imposition of the President’s Rule or a mid-term Assembly election, it is Mr Marandi who is going to play the role of the kingmaker. If the present flow of events is any indication, Mr Marandi may himself become the king, too.
Although the Congress has a number of options currently available to revive the minority Soren government without the JVM(P), Congress leaders have made it clear that the party would not distance itself from the JVM(P), which is considered to have tremendous growth potentials in Jharkhand. Besides, Congress leaders are also aware that the alternatives without the JVM(P) with them would be potentially both risky and embarrassing for the national party.
But Mr Marandi, who has had tough electoral battles with the JMM in Jharkhand’s Santhal Pargana region earlier, has been vehemently opposed to any alliance with the JMM. The recent rise in bitterness between the JMM and the BJP and emerging possibilities of the Congress supporting the JMM to keep the Soren government alive have, however, softened Mr Marandi’s stance.
Mr Marandi, who on Monday repeated his demand for Mr Soren’s resignation, has reportedly set a few tough conditions for the JVM(P)’s support to a Congress-JMM government, the most important of them being that the chief minister’s post goes to the JVM(P). This condition, which the JMM and even the Congress currently find difficult to accept, practically means that Mr Marandi himself could become Jharkhand’s next chief minister.
“It will be for the MLAs of the Congress and the JVM(P) to decide in consensus who becomes the chief minister,” said Mr Marandi on Monday.
The JVM(P)’s other important conditions include 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, according to a JVM(P) leader close to Mr Marandi.