The BJP has a ticklish task ahead to decide the chief Minister with a consensus eluding the two names—former Union minister Yashwant Sinha and ex-state chief minister Arjun Munda. While Munda is a tribal, Sinha is seen as an “outsider.”
The JMM favours a tribal as chief minister. The BJP Parliamentary Board may announce the name on Monday. It is not clear when Jharkhand Chief Minister Sibu Soren would step down.
The BJP bargained hard with the regional outfit in five sessions. The decision was finalised at a meeting attended by BJP president Nitin Gadkari, senior party leader Ananth Kumar, Jharkhand Deputy Chief Minister Raghubar Das, JMM Legislature Party leader Hemant Soren (son of Sibu Soren) and AJSU President Sudesh Mahato .
“We will support a government in Jharkhand under the BJP leadership.The decision has been taken to save the state from President’s Rule,” Soren said.
Saving Jharkhand
BJP General Secretary Ananth Kumar said that the stability in the state would save Jharkhand from the “misrule of the Congress party.”
Earlier, after two back-to-back meetings on Thursday night and Friday , the JMM delegation here insisted that the two parties occupy the chair for about two years each. Many in the BJP were opposed to the idea.
The BJP-JMM government was rocked when the BJP threatened to withdraw support to Shibu Soren when he voted against the Opposition in cut motions in the Lok Sabha.
Although Soren apologised and his son offered support to a BJP chief minister, the JMM gradually changed its position—from an honourable exit for Soren to sharing the chief minister’s post.
The saffron leaders were cautious that the party did not get into”a JMM trap” by agreeing to rotate the chief ministership like the arrangement it had in Uttar Pradesh with the BSP. The deal was clinched after the BJP stuck to its “take-it-or-leave it” stand.
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