Thaindian News

Ranchi, April 28 (IANS) With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announcing the withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren government in Jharkhand, political calculations are on to cobble up another coalition in the state as no party has the numbers to pass the simple majority mark. Soren became the chief minister Dec 30 with the support of 45 legislators in the 82-member state assembly.

Apart from his own 18 Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislators, he had the support of BJP (18), All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) (5), Janata Dal-United (2) and two Independents.

The opposition parties are Congress (14), Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) (11) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (5). Rest are Independents or belong to small parties.

Political observers say that Soren now has three options.

The first is for the Congress, AJSU and RJD support him to continue as the chief minister. This way the JMM crosses 42-mark needed to attain simple majority.

For this, the Congress will either ditch pre-poll partner JVM-P or persuade it to support Soren.

JVM-P chief and Lok Sabha MP Babulal Marandi has already announced that he would not support a Soren-led government.

The second option is to make Marandi, a former BJP man, the chief minister while Soren’s son Hemant becomes deputy chief minister. In this scenario, Soren might be offered cabinet berth in the Manmohan Singh government.

The third option is to have a Congress-led government with Hemant as deputy chief minister and both Soren and Marandi being made central ministers.

BJP Wednesday withdrew support to the Jharkhand government on grounds that Soren had “betrayed” it by voting against the cut motion in the Lok Sabha.

Announcing the withdrawal of support, BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar said the JMM chief had “behaved in a dubious manner and voted against the cut motion”.