NATION

Parties run for elusive power

Vijay Deo Jha | Ranchi|Thursday, May 27, 2010


Hurt with the latest brush of shaky politics in Jharkhand, central BJP leadership is in no mood to rub shoulders with the JMM, nevertheless, a section of party led by Arjun Munda still hopes a rapprochement. “BJP is not going to change its mind…JMM has no political accountability,” State BJP incharge Karuna Shukla said.

Earlier at a Press conference on Wednesday, State BJP president Raghuwar Das announced that the BJP would vote against the Shibu Soren Government during the floor testing in the Assembly. Das, who had resigned from the post of Deputy Chief Minister, along with three other ministers, in the Soren Governmentm addressed the media after the meeting of party legislative body.

Field is now open for the Congress to explore the possibility to form the Government with the help of its ally Jharkhand Vikash Morcha (JVM). But the JVM added another twist, advocating a JVM-Congress Government refusing to give JMM a major say in the alliance Government with either CM or deputy CM post. “JMM can be the part of the Government. It will have the privy to support the Government from the outside but a JMM-led Government is not acceptable to us,” a senior JVM leader said.

It is doubtful whether JMM chief Shibu Soren will agree to such terms and conditions. The Congress might convince JVM chief Babulal Marandi to concede a respectable home space for the JMM in the Government.

Sensing ahead Congress’ probable argument, Marandi has just come in bargaining mode and will be ready to suspend his anti-JMM plank temporarily. On Wednesday, the party asked the Congress to support the JVM for one out of two seats of the Rajya Sabha. The election to these will be held in the mid of June.

Though the JVM announced to oppose the Government during the trust vote but Congress sources suggested: “Burden will now be on the Congress to rewrite the script of the Government formation. The JMM and the Congress having won one seat each in the Rajya Sabha that means the JMM will have to relinquish its claim over the seat to keep JVM satisfied.”

That means also the crisis will continue beyond June 17 when the elections of two seats is expected to be held. At a time when no party --- Congress (14 MLAs), JMM (18MLAs), BJP (18MLAs) and JVM (11MLAs) are in the position to win even a single seat with joining hands with others, the BJP is caught deeper in the mess after it withdrew support from the Soren Government.

Soren’s crisis is immediate as he requires to prove majority by May 31. And so is the case with the Congress since the party has not been able to fix its next move whether to bail out Soren during trust motion or to dump it.

“The Congress has less time for a deal agreeable to both the JMM and the JVM. Problem is that Soren has not shown his cards. There is double jeopardy if the Congress supports the JMM and our alliance partner JVM opposes it on the floor. The Congress will suffer loss of credibility heavier than what BJP suffered in this episode. You can’t trust anybody in State politics which is many steps ahead in Machiavellian politics,” a senior state Congress leader said.

Meanwhile, AICC Jharkhand incharge K Keshav Rao, party state president Pradeep Balmuchu and CLP leader Rajinder Singh will meet party national president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Thursday to discuss combinations and possibilities of the Government formation.

JMM legislative body meeting was called on in Ranchi which continued till late Wednesday night. Tomorrow will be another day of political permutation and combination.

JMM meet cancelled

JMM legislative body meeting which was scheduled for Wednesday evening was cancelled as some party MLAs could not come for the meet. Meanwhile, JMM leaders Hemant Soren and Haji Hussain Ansari had to postpone their visit to Delhi as the helicopter they had to travel in developed some technical snag on Wednesday evening.