Two months after issuing an ultimatum to it, the Congress on Wednesday threatened to withdraw support to the Madhu Koda government in Jharkhand after January 15.
"We will take a final decision on whether to continue support to the Koda government after January 15. The decision will be taken on the basis of our assessment about how his government performed on development issues," Ajay Maken, party-in-charge of Jharkhand, told reporters.
Maken's comments came soon after his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence today afternoon. He said that he would be meeting PCC president and other state leaders on January 11 in Dhanbad to review the performance of the government.
"I will be collecting their response on the performance and thereafter we will announce our decision," Maken, also a Union Minister, said.
On November 15, 2007, the Congress had given a 60-day ultimatum to Koda to act on a 19-point charter of demands or face the music. If the Congress takes the extreme step, the Koda government would be reduced to a minority.
"We have given support to Koda on the development plank but they have failed to live up to our expectations. That's why we gave a two-month ultimatum which is ending next week," he said.
On December 18 last year, the 15-month-old government survived a no-confidence motion, moved by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
In the 81-member Assembly, Koda has the support of 42 members. Congress has nine members. The opposition NDA has 35 members including 29 of BJP, 5 of the Janata Dal-United and one of All Jharkhand Student's Union. The four others are Forward Bloc - 1, CPI-ML (L) - 1, Independent - 1, and nominated member - 1.