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NDA says 'no' to Soren

The National Democratic Alliance Sunday decided against letting Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren become Jharkhand's chief minister.

The NDA instead backed the BJP's bid for the top post in the new state.

The decision came after Soren met Defence Minister George Fernandes in the afternoon.

The meeting was attended also by senior BJP leaders including party's national secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who is in-charge of Jharkhand.

However, the fear of a split in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, if it takes an anti-Vajpayee government stand, has prevented Soren from taking the extreme step of aligning with the Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Soren had on Saturday met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to press chief ministership of the newly-created Jharkhand state. However, Vajpayee told him that the combine at the Centre would on Sunday decide on the matter.

"Soren is hoping against hope. We have already stated that with 32 seats in Jharkand, the BJP is the largest single party and, therefore it will stake claim for chief ministership. This is a stark reality which all should reconcile to," party general secretary Narendra Modi said earlier.

The Samata Party has five seats while the Janata Dal (United) has three seats and Independents two, taking the NDA total in Jharkhand to 42 in the state assembly total of 81 seats.

"Soren knows that he has 12 legislators. If he forms an anti-NDA front by joining hands with the Congress and the RJD as he has been threatening, it would be end of the road for him as far as power is concerned. We have cogent reasons to believe that JMM legislators, like the Congress in Bihar, are keen to share power in the new state. So Soren had better watch out," asserted a former BJP vice-president.

This is why Vajpayee has not 'entertained' Soren by giving him hopes. Instead, the prime minister told him that the NDA combine would take a collective decision on the issue of the Jharkhand chief ministership.

But Soren is making no bones about his grievance that the NDA has stabbed him in the back.

He told rediff.com that after he took over in his all-too-brief tenure as Bihar chief minister, senior Samata Party leader and Union agriculture minister Nitish Kumar had promised him chief ministership of Jharkhand when it was created.

"But now Nitishji has got sudden amnesia and fails to recall that he had made the promise to me which, he said, had been authorised by the prime minister," Soren pointed out.

Sigificantly, Nitish and party colleague Fernandes have denied that Soren had been promised chief ministership.

The JMM chief's threats that in the case of being deprived the Jharkhand chief ministership he would form an anti-Vajpayee government front along with the Congress and RJD has apparently had little effect on the NDA combine.

" We have opened our cards on the table. Now let Soren take any decision he wants," said senior-most BJP vice-president K Jana Krishamurthy, indicating that Vajpayee was prepared for such an eventuality.

RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, who stands to make political gains by creating dissent over chief ministership within the NDA, has despatched a couple of party leaders to woo Soren in the perceived Congress-RJD-JMM front. Laloo is in telephonic touch with the JMM chief while his party colleagues are busy enticing Soren.

The Congress has not yet revealed its hand in the tussle for chief ministership. Congress spokesmen Prithviraj Chavan and Anand Sharma had recently criticised the BJP for "usurping" power through unfair means. However, RJD spokesman Shahid Mazdoor told rediff.com that the Congress leadership was keenly watching the Jharkhand drama and its leaders were in touch with their RJD counterparts.

Soren's next political move would decide whether he has the political maturity to overcome a formidable challenge or he is outsmarted by power-hungry politicians within the ruling combine at the Centre.

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