By IANS,
New Delhi/Ranchi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday withdrew support to the Jharkhand government, saying that Chief Minister Shibu Soren has “betrayed” it by voting against the Tuesday’s cut motion in the Lok Sabha.
Announcing the withdrawal of support, BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar said the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) chief had “behaved in a dubious manner and voted against the cut motion”.
He said the BJP parliamentary board has taken a “very serious note” of Soren’s “betrayal” Tuesday, when the opposition’s cut motions were voted out and the Manmohan Singh government convincingly won the test of strength in the Lok Sabha.
The BJP parliamentary board was chaired by party president Nitin Gadkari and was attended by L.K. Advani, leaders of opposition in both the houses Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, Jharkhand Deputy Chief Minister Raghuwar Das, former chief minister Arjun Munda and senior party leader Yashwant Sinha.
While the JMM is a member of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), its government in Jharkhand was supported by the BJP.
Ananth Kumar said Das would meet Jharkhand Governor M.O.H. Farookh to convey the party’s decision.
Das, who is also the state BJP president, said: “We will hand over the letter of withdrawal of support to the governor Thursday. The BJP ministers will also hand over their resignation letters to the governor.”
“We had planned to hand over the letter of withdrawal today (Wednesday), but I missed the plane. I will reach Ranchi Thursday and meet the governor along with party ministers,” Das told IANS over phone from New Delhi.
Meanwhile, Soren arrived in Ranchi Wednesday by a chartered plane and directly went to his house.
Soren did not speak to media persons and held meeting with senior party leaders and ministers.
Earlier, Hemant Soren, son of Soren, said that the vote for the UPA was a “mistake” committed under confusion.
On Dec 26, Soren had staked claim to form the government with support from 18 BJP legislators, five All Jharkhand Students Union members and two Independents. The JMM has 18 legislators and the Congress 14 in the 81-member assembly.
The JMM has two members in the Lok Sabha.