JMM to stake claim to form govt in Jharkhand

The Congress has 13 MLAs while the RJD too has backed the government

The Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and its chief ministerial candidate Hemant Soren are likely to stake their claim to forming a government on Tuesday in Jharkhand, which has been under President’s rule for the past six months.

The JMM has got the letter of support from a total of 40 members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) so far. The party has 18 MLAs while it enjoys the support of 13 Congress and five Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs.

Four independent MLAs are known to have extended their support to the party. They include Harinarayan Rai, Bandhu Tirkey, Videsh Singh and Chamra Linda.

Talks are going on between the JMM and three more MLAs. These include Geeta Koda, wife of former chief minister Madhu Koda, former minister and independent legislator, Enos Ekka and and Marxist Coordination Committee legislator, Arup Chatterji.

If the three MLAs agree to support the alliance, it  would help the combine cross the magical number of 42 in the 82-seat assembly, a simple majority.

A senior Congress leader said, “We are fully backing Hemant Soren.” As for the RJD extending support to the  alliance, the senior leader said too much should not be read into this as an indicative of a future tie-up with the RJD in Bihar.

“This is a JMM led government. The RJD is lending support to the JMM per se.”
 
The JMM is reportedly working on several MLAs to get any of them on board - Geeta Koda, wife of former Chief Minister Madhu Koda, former minister and independent legislator Enos Ekka and Marxist Coordination Committee (MCC) legislator Arup Chatterji.

Independents are wagering hard on bagging a Cabinet berth. The government can have only 12 Cabinet berths. As per the deal, the Congress will get five berths, JMM another five and RJD two berths. The JMM will have to adjust any independents in the cabinet on its own quota of five berths.

The Congress has this past fortnight been busy in working out this alliance with the JMM and only after the approval of Congress President Sonia Gandhi has the coalition been given the final stamp of approval.