In the wake of a logjam between the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the Congress over who should be the next chief minister of Jharkhand, the state Governor Syed Sibtey Razi has in a letter to the Union Home Minister P Chidambaram recommended that the Centre move to impose President's Rule in the state.
Highly placed sources in the Governor's office disclose that the Razi sent the letter late this afternoon when all efforts to break the impasse between Laloo Yadav and Shibhu Soren failed as each is continuing to stick to his stand on who should take over after Shibhu Soren demitted office on Monday in the wake of his electoral defeat.
Sources say that the recommendation could also be in the nature of a pressure tactic to bring the warring United Progressive Alliance leaders to heel as no one wants President's Rule imposed and most certainly not an early election, with the state assembly polls due in February 2010. In the event that it does not have the desired effect, President's Rule would most certainly be on the way.
While Shibhu Soren's candidate for the chief minister's post is Champai Soren, Lalu Yadav along with independents have been supporting Madhu Koda and are pressing that he be reinstalled. Interestingly the Christian lobby in the Congress is plugging for another JMM candidate Nalin Soren with Mabelle Robello, Bandhu Tirkey, Stephen Marandi, Neil Tirkey and pradesh Congress committee president Pradip Balmuchu supporting his candidature.
With a three-way split in the UPA complicating the situation, prevailing wisdom in New Delhi has been for imposing President's Rule but in view of the persuasive powers of Laloo Yadav it was decided to give him a chance to work a consensus around his candidate. So far it has failed.
Senior Congress leaders are of the view that the more the decision is delayed, the more it would help the BJP in the state and the best recourse now is to impose President's Rule for the time being and then wait for an opportune moment to take a final decision on whether to go in for early polls or give the state another shot at forming a popular
government in the current term of the assembly.
