rediff.com: Make me CM or get lost: Sibu Soren

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Soren) chief Sibu Soren Tuesday indicated his party would snap ties with the National Democratic Alliance in the event of their refusal to accept him as chief minister of Jharkhand as agreed earlier.

There is no point in continuing with the NDA if the latter refuses to accept my claim to the CM's chair, Soren told PTI on his arrival from Bokaro to attend a two-day meeting of the JMM-S legislature party likely to begin Tuesday night.

"Make me CM or get lost, enough is enough you have offered me the post for chief ministership while taking support of our MLAs when the minority Nitish Kumar ministry was installed in March", he said.

It will be better for us to sit in opposition, he said adding JMM-S having 12 MLAs would be largest opposition group in the 81-member assembly.

Asked whether he would try to solicit support of the Rashtriya Janata Dal and other opposition groups to form the government in Jharkhand, Soren said let us have a final response from NDA.

A delegation of JMM-S comprising MLAs, Durga Soren and Hemlal Murmu met Defence Minister George Fernandes and Prime Minister A B Vajpayee in Delhi a couple of days ago but did not get any positive response, he said.

All our legislators will decide the issue finally, Soren said. "We don't believe that we are putting a pressure but what we want that we should not be betrayed on the promise made by NDA leaders earlier".

Earlier, JMM-S general secretary, Prashant Kumar, who led the party delegation to Delhi to appraise the party's stand said they were almost certain to part ways with the NDA if Soren's candidature is not accepted.

The BJP with 32 MLAs, the largest among the NDA constituents in the assembly, has been maintaining that it was the natural claimant to the chief minister's chair, with support of five Samata Party MLAs, three of Janata Dal-United MLAs and a couple of independents.


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