BJP withdraws support to Soren govt

Executing its last month's decision, the BJP today withdrew support to the Shibu Soren government in Jharkhand reducing it to a minority, after the JMM chief minister refused to resign as agreed under a power-sharing deal.

Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Raghuvar Das handed over to Governor M O H Farooq the letter withdrawing support to the government.

The Soren government now has 25 MLAs, including 18 of its own, five of the AJSU, and two others in support in the 82-member House. The BJP has 18 members. The JD(U), which has 2 MLAs, also decided to follow suit and withdraw support to the government.

"I have handed over the letter of withdrawal of support to the governor," Das told reporters at the Raj Bhavan.

"The governor asked me about the signatures of other BJP MLAs. I said I will collect them and hand them over by tomorrow," he said.

JD(U) spokesman Pramod Mishra said, "The JD(U) is a part of the NDA and our central leadership has directed us to go by the BJP's decision."

Frustrated over JMM backtracking on its power-sharing agreement, the BJP had decided yesterday to withdraw support after a defiant Soren asserted that he would continue as the chief minister and was in touch with Congress.

The BJP parliamentary board had on April 28 decided to withdraw support to the JMM government after Soren voted against the party-sponsored cut motion against the UPA Government in Lok Sabha a day earlier.

However, the decision was put on hold when JMM Legislature Party leader and Soren's son Hemant wrote a letter to BJP chief Nitin Gadkari pledging support to a BJP-led government.

But, the JMM backtracked and demanded rotational power sharing with each party leading the government for 28 months.

This was agreed to by BJP on the understanding that Soren would quit as chief minister by May 25 after which BJP nominee and former chief minister Arjun Munda would head the new coalition government.

Soren, however, made it clear on Friday that he was not going to quit and a day later said that the party was weighing all options, including cutting a deal with the Congress to continue in power.