JOIN USSoren told to prove might by May 31
Soren was summoned by Governor M O H Farooq on Monday evening after BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Raghuvar Das handed over a letter withdrawing his party’s support to the government, Raj Bhavan sources said.
With 14 MLAs, Congress saw a possible role in the formation of a stable government. “We are watching the developments. We are putting our minds together to save Jharkhand from collapsing,” Congress in-charge for the state K Keshav Rao told reporters in New Delhi. In Ranchi, Congress spokesman Radhakrishna Kishore said, “If secular parties, including the JMM, send any proposal for formation of a secular dispensation, the party will look into it and place it before the Central leadership.”
In the 82-member assembly, the Soren government now has support of 25 MLAs, including 18 of its own, five of the AJSU and two others. The BJP has 18 members. The JD(U), which has 2 MLAs, also decided to follow suit and withdraw support to the government.
JMM legislative party leader and Soren’s son Hemant said the Governor had acceded to the chief minister’s request to give him seven-days time to prove his majority in the assembly.
Soren took oath as chief minister on December 30 last year with the support of the BJP, AJSU and others. JD(U) spokesman Pramod Mishra said, “The JD(U) is a part of the NDA and our central leadership has directed us to go by the BJP’s decision.”
Frustrated over JMM backtracking on its power-sharing agreement, the BJP on Sunday decided to withdraw support after a defiant Soren asserted that he would continue as the chief minister and was in touch with Congress.
The BJP parliamentary board had on April 28 decided to withdraw support to the JMM government after Soren voted against the party-sponsored cut motion against the UPA Government in Lok Sabha a day earlier.
Meanwhile, CPI-ML(L), which has one MLA, said it would vote against the government during the floor test.
“I will vote against Soren,” Vinod Kumar Singh MLA said.
PTI