The Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were on Thursday locked in a verbal duel after Jharkhand Mukti Morcha supremo Shibu Soren sought to remind his ally BJP of the "agreement" that the two ruling parties had on sharing power on "rotation" in Jharkhand during government formation in September last year.
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance which managed only 24 seats.
Eighteen Jharkhand Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs were suspended from the assembly till 2 pm of August 2 and were removed by marshals after they refused to leave the House on Thursday.
The first month of the new Mamata Banerjee ministry in West Bengal saw fast paced progress on two contentious issues -- the return of land to unwilling farmers of Singur and setting aside of the Gorkhaland demand for a bipartite agreement on Darjeeling.
The Congress indicated on Friday that it might seek President's Rule in Jharkhand if the "standstill" over government formation continued there without any solution.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed senior advocate P S Patwalia as amicus curiae to assist it in examining whether an MP or MLA can claim immunity from criminal prosecution for taking a bribe to make a speech or vote in the legislative assembly or Parliament.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party set to head a new coalition government in Jharkhand with support alliance partners the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the AJSU, Chief Minister Shibu Soren claimed on Saturday that the allies would share power on a rotational basis.
In a last-ditch effort to salvage its government in Jharkhand, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Wednesday extended an olive branch to Bharatiya Janata Party, which withdrew support reducing it to a minority, saying chief minister Shibu Soren was ready to resign and a new leader could be installed.
Hours after the Union Cabinet decided to impose President's rule in Jharkhand, the Sibu Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Monday said all options are still open, indicating that the exercise to form a government is still on. "None of the United Progressive Alliance constituents -- the JMM, the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal -- want President's rule in the state," JMM general secretary and minister for parliamentary affairs Suman Mahato said.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief and outgoing Chief Minister Shibu Soren was on Tuesday admitted to a private hospital after he complained of heaviness in the chest, the hospital sources said.Earlier in the morning, Soren was taken to the Central Coalfields Limited Hospital after he complained of uneasiness. The doctors at the CCL Hospital referred him to the Apollo Hospital.
A large section of the Congress - an ally of the coalition government in Jharkhand - initially preferred President's Rule. But Congress President Sonia Gandhi had to change her mind today as RJD chief Lalu Prasad is keen to see that the Jharkhand government continues with a new chief minister.
Maoists on Tuesday night blew up the ancestral house of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MP Kameshwar Baitha in Palamau district.
Kharge alleged that Dhankhar is working as a government spokesperson and acting like a school headmaster, often sermonising experienced opposition leaders and preventing them from speaking in the House.
Faced with pressures from its allies the Janata Dal-United and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Bharatiya Janata Party has relented and given up its demand of fielding its full share of candidates for Rajya Sabha from Bihar and Jharkhand, and also denied a ticket to its Deputy Leader in the Upper House S S Ahluwalia for another term.
With a significant number of Opposition leaders present at the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Sunday said Opposition unity requires much more than optics of this nature and stressed the need for meeting of minds, a common agenda and sacrificing partisan interests.
He asserted that it was time to "throw such forces out" to protect "mati, beti, roti" (land, daughter, bread).
Bharatiya Janata Party's newly appointed national president Nitin Gadkari on Monday paid a courtesy visit to saffron ally, Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray at latter's residence in Mumbai.
The Congress attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party's post-poll alliance with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Saturday dubbing it as "the high point of unprincipled and unethical politics".
"The BJP and AJSU have agreed to support the JMM under the leadership of Guruji (Soren)," party Vice-President Hemlal Murmu told media persons hours after JMM legislature party elected Soren as its leader and authorised him to explore government formation. JMM has 18 MLAs, same as that of BJP, and AJSU has five members in the 81-member House. If BJP's ally Janata Dal-United with two MLAs also back JMM's bid to form government, its strength will go up to 43.
Koda, scheduled to face a trial of strength in a special session of the assembly on August 25, had been insisting on a meeting of the UPA to sort out the differences instead of airing views here and there. The chief minister added that he would place his views to them of his performance in past two years, which he thought would justify his claim to complete the tenure.
With the Jharkhand governor asking Chief Minister Madhu Koda to prove his majority within a week, the scene of political activities is likely to shift to the national capital. Both the claimants -- Koda and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren -- plan to come to Deolhi to influence senior United Progressive Alliance leaders to support their cause.
Former Jharkhand chief minister Champai Soren joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday, two days after he resigned from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha citing dissatisfaction with the party's current style of functioning and 'bitter humiliation'.
The four-day-old Arjun Munda government in Jharkhand won the trust vote in the 82-member Assembly by 15 votes.Forty five members voted in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition and 30 against.
Senior BJP leader L K Advani will skip the swearing-in ceremony of Arjun Munda as Chief Minister of Jharkhand on Saturday amidst reports that he was unhappy over the formation of the government with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha.
Asked about the BJP-JMM formula to run the government and if the chief minister's post would be rotated, Hussain said "as of now the government will be formed under the leadership of Arjun Munda. There are no conditions to forming this government."
Over three months after it parted ways with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday again came together with Shibu Soren's party and staked claim to form a new government in Jharkhand which has been under President's Rule since June 1.
Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda was on Tuesday elected the leader of Bharatiya Janata Party Legislature Party in Jharkhand as the party decided to stake claim along with allies Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and All Jharkhand Students Union to form a new government.
Five men and two women Naxalites were among those killed in the gunbattle, DIG (Kolhan) Manoj Mishra, said.
Following the footsteps of the MNS chief's call for 'Marathi pride', Soren publicly claimed on Sunday that Jharkhand remained the sole preserve of adivasis (tribals) and Moolvasis (original settlers).
A local court acquitted former Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren in the 1974 Kudko double murder case for lack of evidence on Tuesday.
Welcoming Shibu Soren's resignation, the Congress on Sunday night said the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief took the right decision by not seeking a floor test. "It is proper that Shibu Soren resigned after knowing he had no majority. It is always good to resign instead of going to the House without a majority," Leader of Opposition Rajendra Prasad Singh told PTI. "If our high command directs us to initiate government formation, we will go ahead, if not we won't," he said.
Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was directed by Governor M C Bhandare on Sunday to prove his majority on the floor of the Assembly on March 11 after his coalition government was reduced to a minority following Bharatiya Janata Party's withdrawal of support ending their 11-year-old alliance.
Expressing surprise over Bharatiya Janata Party's decision to withdraw support to the Shibu Soren government, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Monday said the party chief would choose his allies in the run up to the floor test but did not come clear if any deal was made with the Congress.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Tuesday decided to share power on rotational basis for the remaining term of the Jharkhand assembly, with the saffron party to be the first to take over.
Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party remained indecisive over formation of a new government in Jharkhand, its ally in the state Jharkhand Mukti Morcha on Saturday night stuck to its demand for heading the government by them in rotation.
Akhilesh Yadav's stock rose dramatically on Tuesday with his Samajwadi Party cutting the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party down to size in Uttar Pradesh.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha Legislative Party leader Hemant Soren on Thursday submitted his resignation letter as an MLA to his father Shibu Soren and offered his Dumka seat to the Jharkhand chief minister to contest and enter the state assembly.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday put on hold its decision to withdraw support to Shibu Soren government in Jharkhand and appears to have made up its mind to heading a government weighing the pros and cons of having a non-tribal chief minister.
The Congress's Jharkhand unit on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of 'greed for power' which, it said, has led the saffron party to put on hold withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren government in the state.Alleging that the BJP was again 'playing the game of numbers', a Congress release said "Frequent change of decisions among the BJP and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha has not left Jharkhand reeling under a political crisis".
In a damage control exercise after the Bharatiya Janata Party ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha supported the government in the cut motion in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, its Member of Parliament Hemant Soren claimed that it happened by "mistake" and made it clear there was no move to form a government in Jharkhand with the Congress' backing.
