Ranchi:
A day after announcing its decision to pull out of the Arjun Munda government, the legislators of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha will on Tuesday meet the Jharkhand Governor to formally withdraw support to the BJP-led government in the tribal state.
JMM, led by Shibu Soren, on Monday withdrew support to the Munda government reducing it to minroty after talks between two the sides fail to reach an agreement.
The decision to pull out was taken after a meeting of JMM leaders at Ranchi on Monday even though Arjun Munda met JMM chief Shibu Soren and his son Hemant at their residence.
The JMM chief had been asking Munda to hand over power to someone from his party if he wanted the BJP-JMM government to continue.
Soren had earlier threatened that his party would walk out of the alliance if the chief minister's post was not handed over to the JMM as a part of the power sharing deal under which the two parties had agreed to share it for 28 months each.
However, the ruling BJP maintained that no such deal was reached between the two sides and stood firmly behind Munda, whose 28-month tenure ends on January 10.
Both the BJP and JMM have 18 MLAs each in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly and, after Soren's decision to pull out, the Munda government is in minority.
JMM leader and Deputy Chief Minister Hemant Soren yesterday told reporters that the decision to withdraw support was taken "unanimous" and after talking to several BJP leaders, including its Jharkhand affairs in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan.
"After a series of meetings, JMM has decided to withdraw support to the (BJP-led) government," Soren told the media here after the party's executive committee meeting.
“The JMM MLAs would Tuesday hand over a letter conveying to Governor Syed Ahmed its decision to withdraw support to Munda government,” Hemant Soren said.
He further said that a senior BJP MP from Santhal Pargana has been giving baseless statements against the JMM leadership, which is intolerable. There is no coordination in the alliance, he added.
Relations between the two coalition partners have been worsening ever since Chief Minister Arjun Munda, in a written reply to the JMM January 03, denied that there was an agreement between them on "rotation of power" after 28 months in office.
The JMM has five ministers in the BJP-led cabinet, including Deputy Chief Minister Hemant Soren.
The BJP-led government headed by Arjun Munda was formed in September 2010 with support of the JMM, which has 18 legislators in the 81-member Assembly.
Apart from the BJP's own 18 legislators, the party also has the support of six All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) members and two Janata Dal-United (JD-U) members.
