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BJP Jharkhand unit divided over CM issue

There seems to be utter confusion in the Bharatiya Janata Party rank and file in Bihar and Jharkhand over its candidate for chief minister of the new state.

While BJP spokesman Jana Krishnamurthy on Wednesday evening announced that both Babu Lal Marandi and Karia Munda were in the running, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Sushil Kumar Modi told rediff.com, "Babu Lal Marandi is the chief ministerial candidate."

Marandi is likely to arrive in Patna on Thursday afternoon.

There appears to be a clear-cut division in the BJP over the issue. Party national vice president Kailashpati Mishra rebuked a senior party leader who, at a party meeting in Patna on Wednesday, addressed Marandi as the future chief minister.

Mishra had, on Tuesday, said in Delhi that both Marandi and Munda are in the race and that he was not sure who enjoyed majority support.

Reports suggest that most of the 11 BJP Members of Parliament from Jharkhand are backing Munda while more than half of the 32 legislators are backing Marandi's candidature.

Agitated supporters of Munda say the decision to thrust Marandi as chief minister has been taken at the instance of the Bihar BJP unit's leadership and that views of party persons from Jharkhand were totally ignored.

This is taking its toll with Munda's supporters alleging that there was a conscious move to cut him to size. They point out that none of the party's central leaders came to campaign for him either in 1998 or during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections.

"How can a man who was a Cabinet minister in the 13-day Vajpayee government in 1996 be asked to take oath as minister of state in 2000?" asked one such supporter.

BJP legislators are to meet in Patna on Thursday.

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EARLIER REPORTS
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