As Arjun Munda moved the Supreme Court today to challenge the constitutionality of the Shibu Soren government, the Congress, caught in the wrong on Jharkhand, watched with some amount of trepidation and dismay. Because it now transpires that a section within the Congress deliberately botched up an operation aimed at getting the UPA a majority in the state.With the results in and Independents becoming key to government formation, rivalry between Congress and JMM played itself out in a bizarre manner. Some Congress leaders did not act in time to round up the Independents and this allowed the BJP to spirit away Independent MLAs like Enos Ekka.The idea, sources said, was to prevent Soren from becoming CM. While some Congressmen wanted to become CM themselves, others went along because they harboured ambitions of returning to the Rajya Sabha, something that Soren may have prevented.The manner in which Ekka crossed over to the NDA has raised many an eyebrow in the Congress. The Congress in Delhi apparently directed that a chopper be sent on February 27, the day of the results, to gather Independents from their constituencies and ensure their support.But the chopper was sent instead to fetch Congress MLA from Ghatsila, Pradeep Balmuchu, not Ekka or the others. The next day, the BJP got into the act and sent its chopper to spirit away Ekka. Ekka’s party leader N E Horo, president of the Jharkhand Party, had written to the Governor, lending the support of his lone MLA to the UPA. But in the hours that followed, the BJP was able to ‘‘persuade’’ Ekka to cast his lot with them.The team of Subodh Kant Sahay, R K Anand, AICC Secretary Imran Kidwai, who were moving on behalf of Delhi, failed to manage the Independents. Curiously, Harikesh Bahadur, who was in-charge of Bihar and Jharkhand and had worked hard, was kept on the margins.There’s nervousness now in the Congress about the outcome of the March 15 confidence vote. It is trying desperately to keep its flock together. Already there are reports that the BJP is working on the two Forward Bloc MLAs and is trying to also wean away the lone NCP MLA in order to increase its numbers. At a meeting of Congress leaders on Sunday called by Ahmed Patel, political secretary to the party president, it was decided that party leaders should do everything they could to get to the majority figure in the Jharkhand Assembly. But there was no clear plan in evidence on how they would go about it.Senior ministers in government appear to be distancing themselves from Operation Jharkhand. It was curious that Chief Minister Shibu Soren made a dash to Delhi last night but went back today without seeing either Sonia Gandhi or Manmohan Singh or the Home Minister.Although his supporters described it as ‘‘private’’ visit, it was strange that the Jharkhand CM, beleagured as he is, should come to the Capital at a time like this, when he needs to keep his flock together. Manmohan Singh, Shivraj Patil and Pranab Mukherji are believed to have expressed their unhappiness at the way the situation in Jharkhand had been handled. At the weekly meeting held at the Prime Minister’s residence last Friday, which took stock of the latest situation, the Prime Minister expressed his dissatisfaction at the turn of events. Priya Ranjan Das Munshi and Ajit Jogi—both were sent to help form the government in Ranchi—had both been invited to the meeting.The Friday meetings are normally attended by the PM and Sonia Gandhi and they are later joined by their senior colleagues Pranab Mukherji, Shivraj Patil, Arjun Singh, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ahmed Patel. But last Friday, Sonia Gandhi did not attend the meeting.
