Sorens keep BJP guessing: All options open

Continuing its guessing game,the JMM on Saturday said it was in touch with the Congress and all options were open,with even Hemant Soren parroting his fathers line....

Continuing its guessing game,the JMM on Saturday said it was in touch with the Congress and all options were open,with even Hemant Soren parroting his fathers line.

It is for the BJP to look for options. I am in touch with both the Congress and BJP. All options are open. My government will stay, Shibu Soren,who has to step down as Chief Minister by June 30 if he is not elected to the Assembly by then,told reporters in Bokaro.

Asked if he would resign from the CMs post on or before May 25,Soren replied in the negative. I will not resign, he added.

On Friday,the JMM chief had said he would complete his tenure,backtracking on his May 18 statement that he would resign after the party reached an agreement with the BJP for sharing power on a rotational basis with the BJP to head the government first.

His son,Hemant Soren,the JMMs Legislature Party leader,was more forthright. Our options are open. Talks with both the NDA and UPA are on, he told reporters here.

However,the JMM is itself divided on the issue of supporting a BJP-led government. On the first death anniversary of the CMs eldest son Durga on Friday,only seven JMM MLAs Hemlal Murmu,Mathura Mahato,Hazi Hussain Ansari,Shashank Shekhar Bhokta,Akeel Akhter,Jagarnath Mahato and Hemant out of the partys total strength of 18 had turned up,bringing to the fore the schism within the party.

Among the absentees,Simon,Hembrom,Nalin and Teklal,who were staying in a resort at Gurgaon,are not ready to accept Hemant as their leader. Nor are they in favour of the BJP-led government. They are reportedly in touch with the Congress.

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Sita,wife of late Durga,who organised her husbands anniversary in her constituency Jama,has joined Simons bandwagon. We will not let our party support the BJP-led government, said Simon.

Insiders said in case the BJP withdrew its support to the Soren government,it might survive on the floor of the House till June 30 with the backing of legislators of the Congress 14 and JVM 11.

Efforts are on to cause defections in other parties too. Jamal Akhter,a JMM worker close to Simon,who was eying five MLAs of the All Jharkhand Students Union,said: They may shun the communal BJP and join the secular coalition led by Guruji Soren.

BJP national general secretary Arjun Munda,who is the partys front-runner for the CMs post,criticised the Congress for perpetuating the political crisis in the state. These Congress leaders want their party to run a puppet government led by Soren, he said.

With PTI