Simdega/Ranchi: A day before the BJP
parliamentary board is scheduled to meet to decide on its
chief ministerial candidate for Jharkhand, JMM MLA Paulus
Surin on Sunday said he would not support a government led by the
saffron party, a claim his party seniors brushed aside.
Surin, who is in judicial custody in Simdega, informed
the media through his supporters that he had supported Chief
Minister Shibu Soren and would not back a BJP-led government.
JMM-LP leader Hemant Soren, state HRD Minister Hemlal
Murmu and Agriculture Minister Mathura Prasad Mahto (both from
JMM) today met Surin in jail and spoke to him for some time.
Emerging from the jail campus, the JMM leaders told
awaiting reporters that Surin`s statement was "not true",
adding, "just wait and see what happens".
BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar yesterday announced
in New Delhi that the party would head the government with
support from JMM and All Jharkand Students` Union (AJSU) for
the remaining four-and-a-half year term of the Assembly. But
hours after that, the JMM said the chief minister`s post would
be rotational.
Murmu said the rotation policy would not be a repeat of
what had happened in Karnataka between the BJP and the JD(S)
and in Uttar Pradesh between the BJP and the BSP.
To another query, all the three JMM leaders said they
would prefer a tribal as the CM, but it was for the BJP to decide
upon it.
However, BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said in Hyderabad
today that the party would not accept the rotational proposal.
Jharkhand, formed in 2000, has never had a non-tribal
chief minister. Thirty two per cent of the population in the
state is tribal while 15 per cent are Muslims.
The Shibu Soren-led Jharkhand government was hit by a
crisis after BJP decided to withdraw support on April 28 after
the JMM leader voted against the opposition-sponsored cut
motions in the Lok Sabha. However, the BJP kept the decision
on hold after Shibu`s son Hemant Soren wrote to the party
leadership expressing support for a BJP-led government.
PTI
