Four Jharkhand ministers quit

Four minsters from the National Democratic Alliance-led Arjun Munda ministry in Jharakhand resigned on Tuesday plunging the government into a minority in the 81-member house.

The four ministers are Madhu Koda, Enos Ekka, Harinarain Rai and Kamlesh Singh.

Unfazed by the resignation of four ministers, Munda expressed confidence that he will prove majority on the floor of the House if given a chance.

Koda, Enos and Rai, who remained incommunicado after leaving for Delhi three days ago, will arrive in Ranchi Tuesday this evening.

The other minister Kamlesh Singh had claimed Tuesday morning in Jamshedpur that the police had misbehaved with him Monday night while he was on his way to Kolkata to catch a flight to Delhi to meet the three dissident ministers in Delhi.

"If the chief minister does not have confidence in his own ministers, how can one think of the progress of the state?" he told newsmen and said he would quit.

"It is condemnable that the police had the audacity to stop a minister.... the chief minister giving the green signal to block my path is highly condemnable," he said.

While Koda, Ekka and Rai are independents, Singh belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party.

Before the resignation of the ministers, the ruling dispensation had a total of 43 against the UPA's 39 in the 82-member house.