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Sonia expected to hold talks to cap Jharkhand crisis
The central leadership of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is expected to intervene to sort out the political crisis in Jharkhand.
- By Ajay Jha, Chief Correspondent
- Published: 23:32 August 19, 2008
New Delhi: The central leadership of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is expected to intervene to sort out the political crisis in Jharkhand.
The state plunged into crisis after the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), a constituent of the UPA, announced withdrawal of support to the government and three of its ministers resigned soon after.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi is expected to meet with JMM supremo Shibu Soren, who is angling to replace incumbent Chief Minister Madhu Koda.
Political analysts feel that, with neither of the UPA constituents in the state letting go, the survival of the ruling coalition mandated that Sonia broker peace.
Soren, who was in Giridih, was quoted as saying by new agencies that he would not go to New Delhi even if he was called for a meeting. However, UPA circles said that Soren, who was contacted later in the day, had agreed to fly down to the national capital for talks.
Jharkhand governor Syed Sibte Razi has asked Koda to prove his majority on the floor of the state assembly by August 25 following the withdrawal of support by the JMM, which has 17 lawmakers in the 81-member assembly.
Soren had been promised the chief minister's chair as part of the deal the UPA leadership struck on the eve of last month's trust vote in parliament. The JMM however pulled the plug on the Koda government unhappy that the UPA was not giving enough attention to the promise it had made.
With both Koda and Soren claiming majority support in the state legislature, chances of the crisis blowing over are not high considering that the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) , which has 33 lawmakers in the assembly, keeping its distance from both Koda and Soren.
The NDA has made a case for placing the state under central rule and calling fresh polls to break the deadlock.
Incidentally, the UPA came to power in the state by engineering a defection in the NDA.
Jharkhand had elected a hung assembly in February 2005 and Koda is the third chief minister of the state since then. While the Soren-led UPA government was sworn in under controversial circumstances initially, it opted to resign within nine days after failing to muster requisite support.
The NDA then formed the government with the help of independents but lost the plot when eight independents led by Koda joined hands with the UPA.
The problem confronting the UPA is that Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav is against Soren taking over as the new chief minister and is backing Koda while the independents who had switched sides continue to remain loyal to the incumbent and refuse to back Soren.
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