BJP rules out truce with Soren

NEW DELHI: The BJP on Thursday ruled out any truce with Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren and decided to go ahead with its decision to withdraw support to his government.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said that the party MLAs will meet Governor M O H Farook later in the day and convey the decision to take back support from the JMM-led government.

"BJP MLAs from Jharkhand had sought an appointment with the state governor at 11 AM but since one of our MLAs, Baijnath Ram, could not make it, we will now meet the Governor at 5 PM and withdraw support," Swaraj said.

Meanwhile, Soren has written letters to senior BJP leaders L K Advani, Swaraj and party president Nitin Gadkari expressing regret that he had voted against the BJP-led NDA's cut motion in Parliament.

"I have been unwell for sometime and it was due to my ill-health that I voted against the cut-motion," Soren states in the letter, a copy of which is with PTI.

Soren has pledged unstinted support to NDA and pleaded that BJP rethink its decision to withdraw support to his government.

The BJP, however, appeared unmoved. "We are not impressed with his letter and our decision to withdraw support remains firm," Swaraj said.

She dismissed "rumours" that BJP was trying to form a government with its own leader occupying the Chief Minister's chair and Soren's son Hemant as Deputy Chief Minister.

"All these rumours are floating. We are a responsible opposition party and will not react to or take decisions based on what Hemant or Shibu Soren say in a press conference," she said.

Hemant had called up former BJP President Rajnath Singh to request the party to rethink its decision to withdraw support to the JMM government.

On Soren's actions, Deputy Chief Minister and chief of BJP's Jharkhand unit Raghuvir Das said in Ranchi, "To err is human, and they have accepted the error."

He, however, added, "we will abide by whatever decision our national leadership takes".