Soren knocks on Cabinet door, Cong doesn’t stir

He said he planned to meet PM Manmohan Singh later in the day to make his demand. ‘‘All cases against me are politically motivated. They will not spoil my chances of returning to the ministry.’’

The Congress seemed unfazed. ‘‘We have no knowledge of the issue,’’ party spokesman Anand Sharma said. ‘‘The induction of ministers is a prerogative of the PM. The JMM is an ally. The UPA will sort it out.’’

The Congress, which had got enough negative publicity after his disappearance following the filing of the arrest warrants, has no inclination to revive the controversy by taking him back into the Cabinet, especially with no court verdict in his favour so far.

Since Soren has to be sworn in anew, his return to the Cabinet would have to be part of a ministerial reshuffle. And the exercise is most likely to be put off till the Maharashtra Assembly elections.

The Congress strategy is clear. It wants to keep the JMM leader on wait and convince him of his vulnerability to reduce his bargaining capacity during the seat-sharing exercise in the Jharkhand Assembly polls.

‘‘Whatever I did was in the interest of my people, and the law should not come between me and my people,” Soren said of the Jamtara case. He said legislators needed to see if any amendments were needed in the law so that politicians who were ‘‘falsely implicated in politically-motivated cases’’, could continue in the Government and ‘‘serve the people’’.