Koda Moments

But the new chief minister is keen to find the ground beneath his feet. 8220;I am going to remove the carpet from my bedroom,8221; Koda declares as he settles down. 8220;One doesn8217;t need a carpet in Jharkhand8217;s pleasant weather.8221; If he looks relaxed he has reasons to be. The new job apart, he is looking forward to being reunited with his estranged wife Geeta Biruli.

It was an arranged marriage in January 2004 and the then Minister for Mines in the Arjun Munda government preferred to overlook Geeta8217;s humble background because, as insiders put it, she was 8220;easily the most attractive girl in his Ho community8221;.

But the marriage soured soon after the honeymoon and in October 2004, Geeta left Koda to return to her parental house at Hatgamhria in West Singhbhum district.

Geeta8217;s father could not survive the shock of her failed marriage. Her widowed mother wanted her to go back to Koda, but the sulking bride would not relent. Finally, it took no less than a retired deputy SP of the CBI to break the ice.

Related to both the CM and his estranged wife, Sushil Kumar Purti has been mediating between the two for quite some time now and claims that Geeta has agreed to return home to the plush Kanke Road bungalow of the chief minister in Ranchi. 8220;Very soon, they will be together again,8221; Purti told The Sunday Express.

That explains the extra sheen on Koda8217;s ever-smiling demeanour. He used to often visit Patahatu, his native village a few miles from Geeta8217;s Hatgamhria, in the hope that he would have a 8220;chance encounter8221; with the wife he had always adored. Besides, it8217;s bound to feel lonely in the palatial chief minister8217;s bungalow8212; more so after Koda8217;s mother Kunni Kui left for Patahatu a week after the chief minister formally moved in. But Kunni was missing her the other two sons 8212; one high-school student and another busy setting up his business. None of Koda8217;s five married sisters have visited the new chief minister yet.

While mother Kunni would be happy if the family gets to keep a car now that 8220;Madhu has made it so big8221;, father Rasika, a retired class IV employee with Indian Iron and Steel Co, doesn8217;t expect anything from the son: 8220;Humko kya hai beta CM bana toh? Nothing changes for me. Whenever he Koda comes to Patahatu, he leaves a few hundred rupees with his mother.8221; Little wonder Rasika left the CM bungalow in just two days.

But the son seems rather comfortable adjusting to the new orders. For a staunch RSS man who joined the Shakha at the age of 12 8212; he still exercises daily and washes his own clothes even at the CM8217;s bungalow 8212; Koda unabashedly flaunted how he was 8220;blessed by every leader of the UPA8221; when he took up the new job. He has also learnt to harp on the UPA Common Minimum Programme.

Of course, the 36-year-old graduate has the support of old-time loyalists. 8220;He is madhu honey for his friends and koda whip for his enemies,8221; said Daud Horo, a friend of the chief minister since his Tata College days at Chaibasa.

But there are many who feel that Koda has merely been a pawn in the war of supremacy among the big three 8212; Ahmed Patel the Congress, Shibu Soren JMM and Lalu Prasad Yadav RJD. 8220;Patel saved the game for Congress but Soren hates Lalu since the day the latter called him a langur,8221; confides a longtime associate of the Union Coal Minister.

With no charisma of his own, Koda is bound to be perceived as a puppet in the hands of his allies and his government can slip the day a couple of MLAs turn hostile.

But the immediate future of the new Chief Minister looks stable as the ex-CM Arjun Munda-led NDA wants to draw electoral mileage from an anti-incumbency swing in the next election and is in no hurry to pull down the government.

8220;We have wished him Koda the best of luck,8221; smiles Munda.

But with a lame duck government to manage and a broken marriage to repair, Madhu Koda will surely need more than luck.

8216;Bahut achcha kar ke dikhayenge8217;
Many explain Jharkhand8217;s political instability as the legacy of erstwhile Bihar8217;s social divides and the small Assembly of 81 constituencies. There are just too many parties and too few seats to share. Even the Anti Defection Act loses its teeth in the new state with several parties with just 2-3 MLAs.

The fact that Jharkhand has seen five chief ministers in just six years, will weigh heavy on Madhu Koda. Challenges of survival apart, the new Chief Minister must revive a crumbling economy, check a spiraling crime graph and reign in rampant corruption. All of these with a razor thin majority of 43 MLAs belonging to mutually antagonistic parties. His best chance, say critics, is the fear of mid-term poll among the MLAs. Excerpts from an interview:

What was the bargain with the Congress?

There was no bargain.

JMM8217;s Shibu Soren has dubbed you a 8220;horse8230;8221;

I don8217;t know.

Many fear that Lalu Yadav may now influence his trial in the fodder scam cases8230;

How can we influence the court?

You have said your government would contain corruption. How? What is going to be the priority of your government?

I will do some thing. We are chalking out our priority.

Do you have any plan to deal with the naxalites?

We will mobilise the rural youth by offering them opportunities of self-employment.

How do you see the prospect of Jharkhand and its economy?

Bahut achcha, bahut achcha kar ke dikhayenge8230;