With Union Coal and Mines Minister Shibu Soren tendering his resignation on Saturday, the immediate priority of his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party and the United Progressive Alliance government is ensuring his post is filled up smoothly, JMM sources indicated.
A JMM delegation led by party general secretary Sunil Mahato met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and handed over Soren's resignation.
Senior Congress leader and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad accompanied the delegation to the PM's Race Course Road residence.
Azad told reporters Soren had handed over his resignation to the prime minister, ''cocking a snook at the manipulative campaign of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Opposition.''
Azad's senior party colleague and Lok Sabha member Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi criticised the Opposition for raking up the three-decade old issue involving Soren.
"The BJP sees wrongdoing in every government act. Soren is a citizen of India. He can visit any part of the country," Dasmunshi maintained, although he did not explain why the minister was elusive.
JMM sources indicated Soren would come out in the open after getting relief from the court on Monday, when it hears his application to quash charges against him.
Anxious to project the impression that the JMM was united behind the JMM chief, Mahato told reporters Soren would fight the case, 'foisted' on him by the BJP.
"Our party is fully behind Guruji (Soren). We will settle the issue of who succeeds him as minister," Mahato pointed out.
Senior JMM general secretary Muktinath Upadhyay on Friday put in his papers, explaining that he could not stay in it when his chief did not have the courage to face Parliament and had gone underground.
JMM Rajya Sabha member Stephen Marandi emerged a frontrunner as Soren's ministerial successor, but Mahato said the party leadership would take a decision.
Soren's supporters in Jharkhand, especially Ranchi, the state capital, took to the streets, raising slogans against the BJP and the government of Chief Minister Arjun Munda.
The state government on Saturday declared Ranchi and several adjoining districts as sensitive, anticipating trouble from Soren's supporters.
Dasmunshi indicated the government would ''not cow down to BJP blackmail'' pertaining to its campaign against 'tainted ministers' in the government.
