By IANS
Ranchi : As the Congress sticks to its 60-day “perform or perish” ultimatum to Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Koda, the independent ministers of his cabinet expressed their solidarity with the country’s only chief minister without any political affiliation.
Eight independent ministers, who held a closed door meeting with Koda at his official residence here Saturday night, ruled out possibilities of change of leadership in the state. The ministers, according to sources, discussed ways to save the government in light of the Congress’ ultimatum.
This was for the first time all the independent ministers attended Saturday’s meeting and vowed to remain with Koda, Independent, who heads a fragile UPA coalition comprising the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Congress and a group of Independent MLAs.
In November last year, state Congress president Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu and Ajay Maken, union minister and party in-charge in Jharkhand, issued a 19-point charter of demands to Koda and threatened a leadership change in the state if those demands were not met. The 60-day ultimatum ends Jan 15.
The Congress will review the scenario prevailing in the state after the deadline is over and will take further steps. But the early indications show that the party is serious about pulling down the Koda government in the state.
While serving the ultimatum, the Congress had also sought reports from its block and district level leaders to assess the state government’s functioning.
“The reports submitted by the block level leaders say that the party should pull down the government immediately in the interest of the state and the party,” said Alok Dubey, state Congress spokesperson.
“The leaders feel that if the party continues its support to the present government then its position will be like in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
He also informed that all the reports would be submitted to Ajay Maken, and state Congress president Balmuchu would carry those reports to New Delhi Monday.
The chief minister said he was also preparing a report on his government’s performance and described the current row with Congress as a “communication gap”.
“We will submit a report to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, union Railway Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad about the development of the state,” Koda said.
“It seems that communication gap with Congress has been created which will be resolved very soon,” he added.