Shibu Soren with son Hemant (left) before the JMM meeting in Ranchi on Friday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Dec. 25: Spurned by the Congress, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) acted on its next best option today and declared it was ready to form a government with the BJP’s support.

The JMM said Shibu Soren would be chief minister — a condition the Congress was reluctant to accept, given the controversies dogging him and the Prime Minister’s stress on clean governance.

“The BJP and the AJSU (All Jharkhand Students’ Union) have agreed to support us,” JMM vice-president Hemlal Murmu told reporters in Ranchi after newly elected party legislators authorised Soren to take the final call on government formation.

The BJP’s Jharkhand in-charge, Karuna Shukla, confirmed the move, saying Soren had talked to her to seek the party’s support. “I have told the state unit president, Raghubar Das, to discuss the issue with the JMM,” she told The Telegraph.

Along with Sudesh Mahto’s AJSU, which is ready to join the government with five MLAs, and the JD(U)’s two, a JMM-BJP government will have the safety net of numbers (43 in the 81-member House) but not fool-proof stability as the principal partners are known to harbour differences over some key issues.

For one, the JMM’s aggressive pro-tribal policies may not go down well with the largely non-tribal support base of the BJP. The JMM’s sympathetic views on Maoists could be another source of friction.

Nevertheless, the BJP felt this was its opportunity. General secretary Ananth Kumar and former party president Rajnath Singh were scheduled to arrive in the state capital late tonight to set in motion the process of forming a government.

After a meeting of its legislature party tomorrow, Rajnath, Shukla and Ananth Kumar are expected to meet Soren. They will call on governor K. Sankaranarayanan to stake claim.

The effort to share power was speeded up this morning after the BJP came across “irrefutable” information that Soren was against striking a deal with the Congress.

BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, predecessor Rajnath and general secretary (organisation) Ramlal met and decided they must not pass up the opportunity to first, forge an “anti-Congress front” in Jharkhand and second, claim power in the state even if it meant playing second fiddle to the JMM.

“We can’t afford to sit tight and let the Congress walk all over us,” a party official said.

It was also felt that acquiring a government in Jharkhand would kick-start Gadkari’s innings on the “right” note. “At least our cadres would feel enthused and get a sense that the new president means business,” the official said. Jharkhand was Gadkari’s first political test.

Rajnath, who was tasked by Gadkari to speak to the JMM and other prospective allies, got in touch with Soren and conveyed that the BJP would make him the chief minister.

That done, it was made clear that the BJP would be part of the new dispensation and take half the ministerships. Soren agreed.Although the BJP would like to have its deputy chief minister, it was unclear if Soren would agree to it. “If he doesn’t, so be it. We will not make it a prestige issue,” a Rajnath aide said.