JVM president Babulal Marandi (second from right) hands over a memorandum to Governor MOH Farook at Raj Bhavan in Ranchi on Thursday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

New Delhi/Ranchi, May 13: The Congress’s principal ally in the state, JVM chief Babulal Marandi, met governor M..H Farook to demand immediate dismissal of the Shibu Soren government today while the BJP spent the day sounding out senior leaders on the Jharkhand imbroglio.

Marandi, who submitted a memorandum to Farook, urged him to order a high-level judicial inquiry into all major decisions taken by the state government during the last 15 days.

He said the governor should put the House under suspended animation for at least five days and invite political parties to form an alternative government. “If the parties failed to form the government within the stipulated time, he should dissolve the House and pave the way for fresh elections,” he added.

In Delhi, the BJP continued to be divided on the JMM’s insistence on a rotational power-sharing arrangement with senior leaders like L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj putting their foot down against any further capitulation, saying the BJP’s repeated flip-flops had already cost the party heavy politically.

High-level sources said BJP president Nitin Gadkari would be briefed on the Jharkhand developments by Ananth Kumar and Rajnath Singh when he reaches the national capital on Friday noon from Punjab.

A final solution is expected to be in place before May 18 after which Gadkari is supposed to leave for his European sojourn.

Gadkari is yet to be “formally” briefed by the two pointspersons on their recent visit to Ranchi where they met BJP MLAs to get a sense on who their chief ministerial candidate was.

But the twist in the tale came when the Sorens — Shibu and Hemant — informed the Delhi leaders that a rotational arrangement alone was acceptable to them.

That was conveyed to Gadkari on phone and he, in turn, has been speaking to his senior colleagues on whether the BJP should give in to the Sorens and settle to have a chief minister by turn for the rest of the government’s tenure.

Although a source close to Rajnath maintained a decision would be in place by Friday night, others in the BJP weren’t so sure.

“The sticking point is whether we should accept the Sorens’ precondition for the sake of retaining power in Jharkhand. On the other hand, it doesn’t help us to forego a government and be in the wilderness while the Congress rules by proxy if there is central rule,” the source said.

Jamshedpur MP, Arjun Munda, it is learnt, was lobby ing hard against the rotational structure. If the BJP accepts the arrangement it will insist that Soren step down first.

'That much the Sorens will have to swallow, we also need a face-saver,' a leader said, expressing disgust and amazement at the way the father-son duo operated in tandem with out letting it on.

In its memorandum, JVM(P) maintained that neither the BJP nor the JMM

were in a position to prove they had majority support in the Assembly. Amid the prevailing political uncertainty, the state's official machinery had collapsed with senior officials unable to take key decisions.

Marandi has been under pressure from the Congress to explore possibilities of forming an alternative government in alliance with the JMM. The former chief minister, however, is said to have convinced his ally to wait till the JMM and BJP fall apart.

“Dismissal of the Soren government is also necessary to pave way for the formation of an alternative government in the state. The underhand dealings of the Soren government during the last 15 days, too, ought to be brought to book through a high level judicial inquiry,' the JVM memorandum said.

JMM leaders kept a low profile today. Hemant Soren said there was no communication from the BJP from Delhi today and that he was keenly awaiting their decision on the chief minister.