Soren betrayed alliance: BJP

The BJP on Wednesday withdrew support to the Shibu Soren government in Jharkhand, reducing it to a minority. This comes a day after Soren voted against the Opposition’s cut motion.

The BJP on Wednesday withdrew support to the Shibu Soren government in Jharkhand, reducing it to a minority. This comes a day after Soren voted against the Opposition’s cut motion.

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The decision was taken at a meeting of the BJP parliamentary board under the leadership of chief Nitin Gadkari early on Wednesday.

The BJP legislature party leader in Jharkhand Assembly Raghubar Das was asked to meet the Governor and hand over the letter of withdrawal of support.

“The decision was unanimous,” said Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde. “We expected that all our alliance partners anywhere would vote with us. The cut motions were against the Congress-induced inflation and Soren’s vote for the government is a betrayal of the aam aadmi and also of the alliance.”

The BJP was more incensed because party leaders had personally urged Soren to come and cast his vote. He did, but voted for the government.

“We had asked Shibu to come and cast his vote,” Munde conceded. “I had personally talked to him.” The party is however keeping its cards close to its chest after the withdrawal of support.

Asked if they would want to open parleys with Babu Lal Marandi’s Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, Munde said: “We will decide the future course of action only after discussing with the Jharkhand BJP chief and leader of the party in the Jharkhand assembly.”

Spokesperson Prakash Javdekar, too, said that the party was yet to decide its course of action after withdrawal of support.

The BJP and JMM have 18 MLAs each, Congress 14, JVM 11, RJD 5, JD(U) 2 and others 13, in the 82-member Jharkhand Assembly.