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Dissent breaks out in BJP's Jharkhand unit

The refusal of Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Parliament and party national vice president Karia Munda, to take oath as a minister in the Vajpayee government and revolt by a section of party legislators in Ranchi, the proposed capital of Jharkhand, sent a wave of jubilation in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha camp.

Commenting on the resentment among the six-time MP's supporters, JMM chief Shibu Soren told rediff.com on Tuesday evening, "BJP has mastered the art of betraying honest and upright persons. Despite Munda being a BJP veteran in Jharkhand and nobody having any complaints against him, they have made Babu Lal Marandi, a political non-entity, their chief ministerial candidate."

Karia Munda is the senior-most BJP leader in Jharkhand. Much of the credit for popularising the BJP among the tribals in south Bihar goes to him. He was first elected to Parliament in 1977 and served as a minister of state in the Janata Party government.

He was in the Union Cabinet when Vajpayee became prime minister for 13 days in 1996. Considered close to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he had been feeling let down ever since the 1998 election when Babulal Marandi, another Jharkhand leader, was inducted into the Union Cabinet.

Forty-two-year-old Marandi's only contribution was that he defeated Shibu Soren from the Dumka Lok Sabha seat.

On Tuesday, a meeting of the JMM's national executive was underway when news of the revolt in the BJP camp started trickling out of Patna. The faces of the executive's members brightened up considerably on hearing the news.

Independent legislator from Bokaro, Samresh Singh, rang up Shibu Soren to extend his support to the beleaguered JMM chief in the presence of this correspondent. Earlier, a section of the press had reported that Singh had decided to throw his weight behind the National Democratic Alliance.

The squabbling within the BJP over the post of chief minister, it is feared, would lead to an exodus from the NDA.

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