Soren to become J'khand CM with BJP support

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) supremo Shibu Soren is set to become the chief minister of Jharkhand with the support of the Bhartiya Janta Party(BJP) and the All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU).

Sixty five-year-old Soren staked his claim before Governor K Sankaranarayanan to whom he handed over a list of 42 MLAs — 18 each from JMM and BJP, five from AJSU and one from Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch — in the 81-member Assembly.

“We have the required majority to form the new government,” said Soren, who has been the chief minister of the tribal state twice.

“We have given the letter of support to the JMM to form the government under the leadership of Shibu Soren,” BJP leader, Raghuvar Das, said after a meeting of party MLAs.

Soren was accompanied by Das and AJSU leader Sudesh Mahato to the Raj Bhavan.

The JMM chief told the Governor that he had the required majority to form the government, which would be the seventh dispensation in over nine years after the state’s creation.

Asked whether BJP would join the government, its vice- president, Karuna Shukla, said: “We have just given a letter of support to JMM chief Shibu Soren. We will decide after the Governor invites Soren to form the government.”

To a question about the two MLAs of JD(U), an ally of the BJP, former chief minister and BJP leader, Arjun Munda, said its decision would be conveyed to the BJP after the JD(U) MLAs meet.

In the fractured verdict in the assembly polls, Cong-JVM(P) combine secured 25 seats, followed by BJP-JD(U) alliance (20), JMM (18) and AJSU (5).

Popularly known as ‘Guruji’, Soren resigned as chief minister in January this year, after he was defeated in the assembly by-poll from Jamtara.

As no combination came forward to form a government, the state was placed under President's rule on January 19. Sporting a flowing beard with the looks of a godman, Soren has been beset with controversies in his more than four decades of political career. Born January 11, 1944, in Nemra village of Hazaribagh district (now in Ramgarh district), Soren had to cut short his education after his father was allegedly killed by moneylenders.

Soren became the chief minister of the mineral-rich state, following intense manoeuvering after his party backed the United Progressive Alliance to help it sail through the trust vote in July 2008.

He joined the Union Council of Ministers in May 2004, but had to resign within two months after a warrant pending against him in a three-decade-old case surfaced. The case related to the Chirudih massacre in which 11 people including nine Muslims were killed.

The tribal leader, who was on the forefront of the fight for carving out a separate Jharkhand state from Bihar, returned to the Union Cabinet in October 2004, and remained in the government till March 2005, when he became Jharkhand chief minister.