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Payback time in Jharkhand

Shibu Soren’s support always comes at a price. But this time the person who is paying the price is not the one who got his support. Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda is the one who is asked to pay for the support the Jharkhand Mukthi Morcha president extended to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the confidence vote. Mr. Soren is evidently seeking to extract his pound of flesh for having propped up the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre at a critical juncture. Even at the time the JMM announced support for the Manmohan Singh government, Mr. Soren made no effort to conceal the deal he had clinched with the Congress leadership: he announced that he was to be accommodated in the Union Cabinet. To his credit, Mr. Soren never tried to disguise the quid pro quo arrangement. However, given that the UPA government is nearing the end of its term, the JMM leader quickly turned his full attention to what was from the start the prime target: the Chief Ministership of his home State. Mr. Koda was thus destined to be the fall guy in the JMM’s political game of making the most of an opportune moment.

The reaction of the Congress to the developing situation in Jharkhand is, not surprisingly, confused. In the run-up to the confidence vote, it was willing to indulge Mr. Soren in his political ambitions. Now the Congress realises that it has to necessarily back Mr. Soren, even though it has no complaints about Mr. Koda or his government. In a classic case of running with the hare and hunting with the hound, the Congress declined to withdraw support to the Koda government, but expressed support to any JMM effort to form an alternative government. In this scenario, Governor Syed Sibtey Razi chose the straight and narrow path in giving Mr. Koda time until August 25 to prove his majority. Mr. Koda, an Independent member of the Legislative Assembly, enjoyed a wafer-thin majority in a fragmented House. With the 17-member JMM withdrawing support, the government has clearly lost its majority, but the Governor took the proper course of giving Mr. Koda an opportunity to demonstrate his support in the 81-member House. In any case, an alternative government can emerge only after considerable political churning. Political realignments are inevitable in the coming days. For the Congress, with the survival of the UPA government at the Centre already ensured, the stakes are not very high in Jharkhand. But whoever gains in the next few days, Mr. Koda is likely to end up the loser.

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