BJP holds on to Soren, to get CM's post

New Delhi: There is a twist in Jharkhand: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has decided to put its decision to withdraw support to the Shibu Soren-led government on hold.

This, it says, is to prevent the state from coming under Congress rule. This means Shibu Soren, chief of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), will continue as Chief Minister of the state for now.

The BJP says it will talk to other allies before taking a final decision. The BJP’s parliamentary party met on Friday to consider Soren's offer of transfer of power.

The BJP would hold talks with alliance partners the JMM, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) as well as the BJP state unit and take a "further decision, said BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar at a press conference in New Delhi.

The parliamentary board received two letters from the JMM leadership, one from Soren and the other from his son Hemant Soren after the BJP announced withdrawal of support.

"We received two letters from the leadership of JMM. One was from Shibu Soren in which he appealed that in the interest of the poorer sections of the society of Jharkhand, the state should not be pushed to Congress misrule and the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government should stay," Kumar said.

"On April 29, we received another letter from Hemant Soren which said that after considering the political happenings of the past two days, the JMM has decided and is ready to form a government headed by the BJP.

"Taking cognisance of both these letters, the BJP parliamentary board has decided to have talks with the allied parties in the state - the JMM, Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) as well as the BJP state unit and take a further decision," he said.

Sources tell CNN-IBN BJP MLA Arjun Munda is to be made the Chief Minister and Hemant his deputy in a compromise deal between their parties.

The Soren government will be reduced to a minority if the BJP backs out. In the 82-member Jharkhand assembly, the JMM and the BJP have 18 members each, All Jharkhand Students Union five, the Janata Dal-United has two.

The Congress has 14 members, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVP-M) of former chief minister Babulal Marandi has 11 and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) five. The others are mainly independents.

Soren's decision to support the Congress government in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday on BJP-sponsored cut motions over the federal budgetary proposals created a political crisis in the state.

(With inputs from CNN-IBN correspondents and IANS.)