Jharkhand’s Mukti remains uncertain

NEW DELHI: After holding out for over a fortnight, BJP on Wednesday meekly surrendered before the JMM leadership and accepted the rotational formula for the post of chief minister in Jharkhand.

In keeping with the pact being worked out among the BJP and its alliance partners, which includes, besides JMM, AJSU and JD(U), BJP will get to install its nominee on the chief minister’s post for the coming 28 months, allowing JMM to take over the reins of the state for the remaining 28 months.

If everything works out according to the script being prepared by the alliance partners, Mr Arjun Munda is set to become the chief minister of Jharkhand for the third time. In the headcount undertaken by former BJP president Rajnath Singh and party general secretary Ananth Kumar in Ranchi on Tuesday, an overwhelming majority of MLAs hailing from the saffron stable came out in support of Mr Munda.

While 15 MLAs backed Mr Munda’s candidature, only two legislators are said to have come out in the support of deputy chief minister Raghuvar Das. The BJP is keen to conclude the nitty-gritties of the power-sharing agreement in the next three days as Mr Nitin Gadkari is leaving for a 10-day vacation abroad on May 16.

The BJP’s volte-face on the leadership issue — Mr Ananth Kumar had on Saturday insisted that the party nominee will hold the chief minister’s post for the remaining 56-month term of the assembly — caps a series of surrenders effected by the party leadership since the present crisis erupted on April 27. After chief minister Shibu Soren cross-voted in favour of the Manmohan Singh government on the Opposition-sponsored cut-motions in the Lok Sabha, a livid BJP leadership took less than 24 hours to announce their decision to pull out of the Soren government. The move was, however, put on hold after JMM agreed to concede the chief minister’s post to BJP.

The rotational formula, the BJP observers were told by JMM and AJSU leaders during their stay in Ranchi, was necessary to impart a semblance of “stability” to the coalition government.