Thaindian News

Ranchi/New Delhi, May 24 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday withdrew support to the five-month-old Shibu Soren-led government in Jharkhand, reducing it to a minority and plunging the state into political uncertainty yet again.
“We have withdrawn support from the Shibu Soren government as the political uncertainty was lingering in the state for a long period of time,” state BJP president Raghubar Das told reporters.

The BJP has a strength of 18 in the 81-member assembly and the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) also has 18 members. Of the other coalition-partners, the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) has five members and the Janata Dal-United two.

Das accused the Congress party of creating the political uncertainty in Jharkhand.

“Congress is playing dirty politics in Jharkhand… it has been trying to destabilise the government since its formation. Congress took away some JMM legislators to Kolkata and New Delhi to destabilise the government,” he said.

In New Delhi, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said: “We tried effectively to ensure and lead a non-Congress government in Jharkhand but we did not succeed, so we decided enough is enough. We can’t try any further.”

“This decision was taken last evening (Sunday) after consulting and discussing with each member of the parliamentary board. It was a unanimous decision,” said Jaitley, who is leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

The JMM, however, made a last ditch effort to prevent the BJP from withdrawing support.

According to informed sources, Shibu Soren’s son Hemant Soren met BJP national general secretary Arjun Munda in Ranchi and tried to persuade him to prevent the party from withdrawing support.

Senior JMM leader Hemlal Murmu termed the withdrawal of support as “unfortunate”.

Jharkhand has been facing a political crisis since April 27 when Soren voted against the BJP’s cut motions in the Lok Sabha last month. This led the BJP, a junior partner in the Jharkhand coalition, to announce withdrawal of support from the JMM on April 28. On April 30, BJP put its withdrawal decision on hold.

On May 8, JMM announced that it would support the BJP. Ten days later, on May 18, BJP agreed to a rotation of power with Soren. On May 20, however, Soren refused to quit and announced that talks were on with both the BJP and the Congress for the formation of an alternative government in Jharkhand.