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Political acrimony mars Jharkhand's birth

Elation triumphed over lingering resentment as the country's 28th state, Jharkhand, took birth at precisely 0005 hours at the Raj Bhavan in Ranchi after Governor Prabhat Kumar was sworn-in by Chief Justice Vinod Kumar Gupta.

Fireworks lit the chilly November sky and a roar went up as Kumar administered the oath of office to National Democratic Alliance Chief Minister Babulal Marandi, former Union minister of state for environment and forests.

With his right hand raised in the ' V for victory' sign, Marandi took the oath as his raucous supporters went berserk.

Shouts of " Babulal Marandi zindabad" and " Hamara neta amar rahe " reverberated across the expansive premises of the Raj Bhavan.

However, drama earlier continued to be enacted inside with the Governor rejecting the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha chief Shibu Soren's claim for the chief ministership - he gave a list of 36 MLAs - and contended that he needed more time to prove his majority on the floor of the state assembly since he had nine more legislators backing him.

Soren, who had earlier asserted that he would be the chief minister of the new state carved out of Bihar, virtually demonstrated against the rejection of his claim by Kumar

He warned reporters, yet again, that he should not be written off.

" Aap log sabr karen, khel abhi khatam nahin hua hai" (have patience, the game is not over yet ), Soren snapped at this correspondent.

The threat by Soren and his supporters to hold a parallel swearing-in ceremony was a non-starter due to the tight security arrangements by the local administration. It was beefed up with central forces like the Border Security Force joining in.

At around 1720 hours, slogan-shouting supporters of the JMM-S chief marched past Firayelal Chowk and attempted to advance to the gubernatorial residence but were discouraged by the sten-gun toting securitymen, who had put up roadblocks 100 metres away from the Raj Bhavan.

Significantly, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, who is backing Soren, described Maranadi's oath-taking ceremony as a "farce because the NDA had purchased legislators."

" Inn logon ko Dilli se maal mila hai aur yeh vidhayak khareed liye hain. Yeh prajatantra ka haseen udaya gaya hai" (These people, the NDA, have got money from Delhi. They have made a mockery of democracy ), the RJD chief told reporters at Hotel Hindustan in Ranchi.

In what appears to be a clear case of political one-upmanship, the Bihar state government dithered over providing Marandi with the security due to a chief minister. Laloo's chief minister wife Rabri Devi's administration pointed out that Marandi is only a chief minister-designate.

However, now that Jharkhand has been born at Bihar's expense, it is inevitable that the collision between Marandi and the Laloo-Soren combine will increase in the coming days.

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