And so ran Soren

1980-1985: When he was elected member of the Lok Sabha for the first time in 1980,Soren was an ally of the Congress I led by late prime minister Indira Gandhi. In 1983,Soren dumped the party and joined hands with the Janata Party. Two years later,he switched sides again,contesting the Assembly elections as an ally of the Congress in 1985.

1990: As time rolled by,Soren again turned anti-Congress. The JMM contested the 1990 Lok Sabha elections as an ally of the Janata Party and the Left,bagging six Lok Sabha seats.

1991-2000: After three years of an alliance with the Janata Party and the Left,Soren made a somersault in 1993 when the JMMs six MPs,including Soren,voted in favour of the confidence motion tabled by the Congress government led by prime minister P V Narasimha Rao. In 1995,the CBI booked the JMM MPs for receiving a bribe of Rs 3.5 crore to bail out the Rao government.

1996: After he was released on bail in the bribery case,Soren promptly ditched the Congress and backed Nitish Kumar,helping him become CM of Bihar for the first time in 1996,with the support of the BJP. After Nitish failed to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly,Soren distanced himself from Kumar. In 1996,when the Janata Party suffered a vertical split,leading to the formation of Janata Dal led by Kumar,Sharad Yadav and George Fernandes,and the Rashtriya Janata Dal led by Lalu Prasad Yadav,he joined hands with the latter. In what was said by some to be a quid pro quo,the Lalu government passed a resolution on the floor of the Bihar Assembly approving creation of a separate state of Jharkhand.

2000: After Bihar was bifurcated to set up Jharkhand in 2000,Soren in his bid to become chief minister hugged the NDA government led by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. But since the Vajpayee government preferred to install the NDA government led by BJP leader Babulal Marandi,Soren rejoined the Congress and the RJD. As an ally of the Congress,Soren was sworn in as Union minister of coal.

2004: The Chirrudih massacre case related to the murder of 14 Muslims was revived,and the court of Jamtara issued arrest warrant against him. Subsequently,Soren fled,only to resign from his post of Union minister,and was jailed.

2005: After he came out of jail in the massacre case,he was sworn in as CM for the first time with the support of the Congress,RJD and JMM. But just nine days later,Soren failed to prove majority on the floor of the House and his government fell.

2006: He was awarded life imprisonment by the Tis Hazari court in the Shashi Nath Jha kidnapping-cum-murder case.

2007: He backed the Congress and RJDs move to install Independent MLA Madhu Koda as CM,but a year later,he withdrew support to the Koda government and was sworn in as CM for the second time with the support of the Congress and RJD.

2009: After he lost the Tamar bypoll,he resigned as CM leading to imposition of Presidents rule in Jharkhand. After the Assembly polls held during Presidents rule delivered a fractured mandate,he joined hands with the BJP,JDU and the All Jharkhand Students Union to form yet another government.

With the BJP withdrawing support on Wednesday,Sorens government has been reduced to a minority. But as his long history shows,that may be just a new beginning for the JMM chief.