Dumka, Nov. 4: Welcome arches and flags, sporting various shades of green and saffron, tried to portray a united face of the BJP-JMM-Ajsu coalition, countering the Opposition’s scepticism about the real fallout of today’s cabinet meeting being held here by chief minister Arjun Munda amid much fanfare.
Former deputy chief minister Stephen Marandi may feel the publicity blitzkrieg would do little good to the people of Santhal Pargana, but local leaders of the BJP, JMM, Ajsu claimed the decorations were put up to celebrate a “unified coalition”.
Munda travelled more than 350km from Ranchi by road to get a feel of the poor condition of roads, setting the stage for today’s meeting, the second held in Dumka — considered to be the second capital of Jharkhand.
Till last night, local party units were vying with each other, staking claim on vantage points to set up posters and flags. But, today it was a show of unity.
Flags of the three coalition partners, BJP, JMM and Ajsu, were all over the city, especially along roads. Huge gates, decorated with posters of Munda, his deputies Hemant Soren and Sudesh Mahto, had been erected, too.
“The flags and posters of parties have been put with the consent of our senior leaders, in our case, Guruji,” JMM’s Dumka district president Subhash Singh said. “Infighting among parties in a coalition government is a natural phenomenon, but this show of unity is for development”
Munda reached Dumka at 11.30am today from Deoghar and was accorded a warm welcome by partymen. JMM’s Shibu Soren was here, too, taking part at a divisional level Vikas Mela function.
This was the second time a cabinet meeting was being held at Dumka, the first being in 2005 when Munda was chief minister for the first time.
“Holding a cabinet meeting here does not do any good to Santhal Pargana unless the state government takes a concrete decision for the development of the region like setting up of good educational institutions, etc,” said Marandi, alluding to the region’s backwardness that has been aggravated by large-scale unemployment.
Among the demands voiced frequently were setting up an engineering and medical college in Dumka, a high court bench and a sub-secretariat to address people’s governance issues.
