A day after the All India Forward Bloc withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance coalition government led by him, Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda on Friday said there was no threat to his regime and he enjoyed the majority in the House.
"I did not get any such letter (announcing withdrawl of support). I learnt about it only through the media. I will speak to Debabrata Biswas (AIFB general secretary) on his party's grievances," Koda said when asked for his reaction.
The withdrawl of support would not have "any impact" on the four-and-half month old government, he said and hoped that AIFB would reconsider its decision and not give any chance to communal forces like the National Democratic Alliance to come to power.
"The secular forces had joined hands and formed the UPA government. And any tug-of-war among us will only benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA, whom the people of Jharkhand had been disillusioned with," Koda said.
Upset over the induction of AIFB suspended legislator Bhanu Pratap Sahi into the Koda ministry as the in-charge of the health portfolio, the party had on Thursday night withdrawn its support given from outside.
While Sahi insisted that he was an independent MLA as he had been expelled from AIFB, the Left party maintained that it suspended him for anti-party activities.
The immediate provocation for AIFB to withdraw its outside support to the Koda government was the swearing in of Sahi as minister on Thursday night.
To a query, Koda said Biswas had called on him a couple of days ago, but did not speak on the subject (withdrawal of support).
"Biswasji only discussed developmental issues like panchayat elections, rehabilitation and resettlement," Koda said to a query on whether Biswas had expressed his party's reservation on inducting Sahi as a minister in his Cabinet.
With CPI (ML-Liberation), which has only one MLA in the 82-member state Assembly, announcing to keep equidistance from both UPA and NDA, it was a relief for Koda.
"The CPI (ML-Liberation) will maintain equidistance from the two blocs and never be a part of any form of politicking by BJP-led NDA," its state unit secretary Subhendu Sen said.
The stand had been announced during the formation of the Shibu Soren government in 2005, he said adding, "we will not allow communal forces to grab power.
"Neither theoratically nor practically is the NDA in a position to take any technical advantage of the development," Sen claimed.
Koda, an independent MLA, in September had formed the UPA government with the support of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (17), Congress (9), Rashtriya Janata Dal (7), United Goan Democratic Party (2), Nationalist Congress Party (1), Forward Bloc (2), All Jharkhand Students Union's Chandraprakash Choudhury and independent MLAs Stephen Marandi, Enos Ekka, Har Narain Rai besides Koda himself.
The NDA has a total of 37 MLAs -- BJP (30), JD-U (6) and a nominated MLA.
AJSU has two MLAs -- Sudeh Mahto and Chandraprakash Choudhury. While Mahto sits in the opposition bench, Choudhury joined the Koda Cabinet with a green signal from the party.
AJSU, which had been in the NDA bloc for six years, is headed by Mahto.
"Though AJSU did not join UPA, the party's central committee has given consent to Chandraprakash Choudhury to be in the ministry on condition that he can do as long as the party wished," senior AJSU leader Praveen Prabhakar said showing his party's tilt towards the UPA.
