Members of the United Progressive Alliance in the Jharkhand state Assembly met senior Congress leaders in New Delhil on Monday and demanded that the Jharkhand state government led by Chief Minister Arjun Munda be dismissed immediately as it has lost confidence following the defection of three independent ministers to the Congress camp.
"These MLAs were scheduled to have a meeting with Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Monday evening," said a source in the Union Home Ministry.
These ministers are living in the farm house of R K Anand in South Delhi for last couple of days and were expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
Sources state that some factions of the UPA, especially Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, favour the dismissal of the government and installation of the UPA-led government. However, the Congress is not very keen itself on going ahead with the proposal.
It's being stated that the Congress is still wary of its first experience after installing Shibu Soren as the chief minister of the state, though numbers were not on his side.
However the government is seriously considering weighing the two proposals and a decision on this is likely to be taken in due course by Sonia Gandhi in consultation with the other UPA constitutents in the Jharkhand Assembly.
Lalu Yadav is of the view that UPA should not waste time but capitalise on the anti-Arjun Munda sentiment prevalent in the state.
If the UPA does not install its own government now, then it may not be able to do so after the elections for the new state assembly as proposed by the Janata Dal United president Sharad Yadav, Lalu feels.
BJP maintained that there was no threat to its government.
"We are very much in the saddle and there is no threat to our government in Jharkhand," claimed Prakash Javadekar, spokesman of the Bhartiya Janata Party at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday.
On the eve of its national execiutive to be held in Dehradun from September 7-9, the core group of senior leaders of the party would meet in New Delhi on Tuesday evening to discuss related matters.
Munda is arriving in New Delhi on Monday evening to take part in the chief minister's conference on internal security called by the Central government.
Javadekar denied that the party may postpone its national executive to be held on September 7-9 in Dehradun. "We would emerge stronger than ever after the national executive. We are in touch with our ministers in Jharkhand. There is no threat to our government," he said.
Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said that the situation was evolving and it would not be proper to make any comment. He refused to comment whether or not three independent ministers of Munda's government had met Sonia Gandhi already or they were in the process of doing so.