Despite JMM chief Shibu Soren’s fresh claims of talks going on with the Congress for government formation in Jharkhand, the national party remains cold to his enticements primarily for two critical factors — the Maoists and ally Babulal Marandi.
The Congress is refusing to take the plunge with the JMM in Jharkhand because it considers both the immediate and long-term disadvantages before it would far outweigh the gains it could make, said party insiders. “Despite Soren’s insistence on propping up a government to wade off the President’s Rule, the Congress is exploring possibilities of seeking fresh elections after the first six months of central rule,” said a senior Congress leader.
On Sunday, the Congress managed to secure Marandi’s support to Dhiraj Sahu as its Rajya Sabha nominee. This was the first sign of cordial relations resuming between the Congress and Marandi’s JVM(P) after President’s Rule was imposed on June 1, said sources.
It was precisely the Maoists and Marandi that had torpedoed the Congress Party’s budding efforts to form a government in Jharkhand in the days immediately before President’s Rule was finally imposed.
“Marandi wanted to be chief minister in a possible Congress-JVM-JMM government, which was not accepted by MLAs of both the JMM and the Congress. Besides, the Congress central leadership reckoned that supporting a JMM government would put the UPA government’s anti-Maoist offensives in embarrassing confrontations,” said sources.
Mr Soren is known to have been soft on the Maoists. After the JMM fielded six former Maoists in the December 2009 Assembly polls — one of them, a jailed Maoist, won — he resisted Union home minister P. Chidambaram’s initiatives to crack down on the rebels.
Discords between the Congress and the JVM(P) over the post of the CM in the event of supporting a JMM government had surfaced when the Congress said, after Soren’s resignation, that it would not form a government for not having the numbers.
“It still remains a challenge for the Congress to dissuade Marandi from wishing to be CM,” said a Congress MLA.