Guruji takes BJP for another ride

NEW DELHI: With JMM digging its heels in by refusing to hand over the reins of power in Jharkhand to its alliance partner, an embarrassed BJP was on Monday was forced to redraw its strategy. There were indications that the saffron party would soon withdraw its support to the Shibu Soren government, without even waiting for the formal letters of support from JMM MLAs.

Faced with JMM’s recalcitrance on the power-transfer agreement, the BJP top brass held two rounds of meeting here on Monday. There was a growing feeling among them that they had been taken for a ride by JMM, and that if the situation was allowed to drift, the party would forfeit whatever little credibility it was left with in the state.
``We’ll decide within this week on whether to continue our alliance with JMM,’’ Opposition leader Sushma Swaraj told newspersons here on Monday.

The BJP brass, which took stock of the situation, was getting exasperated with JMM for its refusal to honour its commitment of vacating the chief minister’s post in favour of a saffron nominee. Not only was the tribal-dominated outfit now pleading with its alliance partners to allow Mr Shibu Soren to continue as chief minister till June 30, when the six-month deadline for getting himself elected as a member of the state assembly expires, but also wanted the chief minister to convene a meeting of the cabinet to show that it was business as usual.

BJP made it clear that the ministers hailing from the saffron stable would not attend the cabinet meeting till such time when the confusion over the leadership of the alliance government lifted.

``It’s become very embarrassing for us. We’re likely to take a final decision on the issue in a day or two,’’ admitted a senior BJP leader. As of now, withdrawal of support to the JMM-led government, he maintained, looked like the only honourable way out, given the conflicting reports emanating from the JMM camp. A quick parting of ways, it was being felt, was the only way the party could cut its losses.

BJP had on Wednesday announced the withdrawal of its support to the four month-old Soren government when the chief minister cross-voted with the Manmohan Singh government on the cut motion in the Lok Sabha. The saffron outfit was, however, subsequently forced to on hold its decision after Mr Hemant Soren, Mr Shibu Soren’s son who’s also the JMM legislature party leader, wrote a letter to Mr Gadkari affirming his party’s backing to a BJP-led government in the state.