The Hindu : Front Page : Arjun Munda set to lead government in Jharkhand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Arjun Munda set to lead government in Jharkhand

Neena Vyas

BJP-JMM clinch power sharing deal; agree upon 28:28 formula

— PHOTO: PTI

Stalemate ends:Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM chief Shibu Soren and BJP national general secretary Arjun Munda (left) hail the power-sharing accord in Ranchi on Tuesday.

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary Arjun Munda is all set to become the Chief Minister of Jharkhand for a second time. He is likely to take over after May 25, when the incumbent Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief, Shibu Soren, is expected to resign.

As per a deal clinched, after 28 months of leading the government, the BJP will make way for a JMM Chief Minister for the next 28 months, BJP sources said here on Tuesday.

Meeting in Ranchi

The breakthrough came after a meeting between Mr. Munda and Mr. Soren in Ranchi. Mr. Shibu Soren's son, Hemant, who is the leader of the JMM Legislature Party, and Suresh Math, leader of the All-India Jharkhand Students' Union, were present. Emerging from the meeting, Mr. Shibu Soren told journalists that he would soon resign.

Though Mr. Munda's name has not been officially announced, the sources indicated that it would be done only after Mr. Soren resigned and the JMM gave a letter of support to the BJP.

The BJP's understanding is the JMM supremo will resign on or around May 25. In any case, he will have to resign in a month as he has not been able to get himself elected to the Assembly.

Strong message

On Friday, BJP president Nitin Gadkari asked Mr. Munda to go to Ranchi and finalise a power-sharing agreement with the JMM. By sending Mr. Munda, he seems to have sent out a strong message that the issue of who would be the BJP's Chief Minister had been decided.

Those in the party who were not happy with this choice continued to try and undo a deal with the JMM by opposing a rotation of the Chief Minister and by getting some dissidents to raise other issues through JMM legislators.

It has taken the BJP all of three weeks to arrive at a political solution to resolve the crisis, which arose following the BJP Parliamentary Board's decision on April 28 to withdraw support to the JMM-led government in which the BJP is a coalition partner. Later, with Hemant offering to support a BJP-led government, the withdrawal-of-support decision was kept in abeyance.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page