Facing a tantalising opportunity to taste power in Jharkhand, the Congress on Tuesday started unhurried but determined efforts to get its ally JVM(P), led by former chief minister Babulal Marandi, to join it in supporting the Shibu Soren government.
Even as Congress legislative party leader Rajendra Singh said in Ranchi that the party was awaiting its central leadership’s decision on government formation, Jharkhand Congress president Pradip Kumar Balmuchu met the Congress in-charge for Jharkhand, K. Keshav Rao, in New Delhi to discuss a strategy for government formation.
“We are in no hurry. We are still considering the situation. We will take a decision soon,” said Mr Rao to this newspaper over phone. Congress sources said the party was finding it difficult to secure the JVM(P)’s unconditional support for a Congress-JMM government at this moment and therefore not making any definite move towards government formation.
Radhakrishna Kishore, the Congress spokesman in Jharkhand, said his party was awaiting a proposal from the JMM. “We are waiting for the JMM to reach us with a proposal and framework of the next government. We will decide our move after it comes,” he said in Ranchi. Sources said leaders of the Congress and the JVM(P) got in touch for “informal talks” on government formation on Tuesday. MLAs of both the parties are scheduled to meet separately on Wednesday to review the political situation created after the BJP withdrew support to the Shibu Soren-led coalition government on Monday, reducing the government to a minority. Soren is set to prove majority in the Assembly by May 31.
Senior JVM(P) leader and former minister Pradip Yadav said his party was not afraid of facing a mid-term Assembly election. “It is the JMM and the BJP who are most afraid of elections now, because they know their tally will further plummet and they would be practically erased from Jharkhand’s politics,” he said.