Ranchi, Dec. 16: A decision on Anosh Ekka’s fate, following the Tamar candidate controversy, will be taken tomorrow.

The UPA today “authorised” chief minister Shibu Soren to decide whether Ekka should be allowed to continue as a minister. Soren said he would announce his decision before the winter session of the Assembly begins tomorrow and would be consulting the advocate general before taking a formal decision since the model code of conduct was in force.

Ekka’s absence at the UPA meeting, held at the chief minister’s residence this evening, too, added fuel to the fire. “If he is doing all these, he must be getting backing from elsewhere. But, I will never tolerate such acts of indscipline,” said an upset Soren.

However, water resources minister Kamlesh Kumar Singh (NCP) and deputy chief minister Sudhir Mahto (JMM) and drinking water and sanitation minister Aparna Sengupta (Forward Bloc) and UPA steering committee chief Madhu Koda, too, could not make it to the meeting.

But Soren claimed that the leaders had informed him that they were not available in the city. “Ekka’s conduct tantamount to breach of trust,” he added.

Amid speculation of he losing his ministerial berth, Jharkhand Party chief Anosh Ekka today challenged chief minister Shibu Soren to contest the Tamar by-election like any other “ordinary” candidate. The cabinet minister also went on to clarify that his party was “not a constituent unit of the UPA” and was only supporting it in the state.

Ekka, who holds several important portfolios in the Soren government, including rural development ministry, however, refused to put in his papers and also said that, as a minister, he was not against attending any UPA meeting.

Ekka put up a brave front, saying that the chief minister was free to take his decision. But, he stressed that he would not turn away from the decision regarding the Tamar by-election. “It is being said that I cannot live without a ministerial berth, but now, I have put my prized possessions at stake and am being pressured to withdraw Peter from Tamar,” he said. He claimed backing of ministers in his mission.

Swelling support for Peter