No truck with RJD — JMM faction

The RJD and the BJP were the two sides of the same coin as the former had openly opposed the State’s creation, while the latter was conspiring to stall the statehood fanning contradiction within its own coalition, he said.

Tirkey, he said he personally felt those fighting for state-hood must not contest the Assembly elections for a united Bihar. “I am not going to contest the Assembly polls”.

Reacting to Shibu Soren’s reported statement calling upon the people for a movement for the creation of Jharkhand, Tirkey said, “Why should people believe Soren when during his 18-year parliamentary career he never raised the demands of this region”.

Even today Soren, a member of Parliament, had failed to mount pressure on the Centre in the Rajya Sabha for clearance of the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill in the current session.

Soren should first relinquish his membership of the Rajya Sabha and call upon his supporters to resign from the State Legislature, he said.

He urged President K R Narayanan to give a minimum time frame to the Bihar Legislature for returning the Bill after ratification and also to direct the Centre for convening a special session of Parliament for its early passage.

Tirkey said had Soren been concerned about this region’s welfare, the latter should have raised his voice against the Centre’s proposed forest and the rehabilitation policies, which, if implemented, would adversly affect the people of this area.

Tirkey charged the Congress with “double speak” on the Jharkhand issue. The party’s concern on Jharkhand could be judged from the fact that so far it had not demanded introduction of the state reorganisation on the floor of the Lok Sabha, he pointed out.

The Congress could have staged a walk-out from the Lok Sabha on the alleged delay in introduction of the Jharkhand Bill as it did on Tuesday on the Women’s Reservation Bill, he said.