For BJP,the unkindest cut motion: Soren voting UPA

The BJP was incensed. “He (Soren) has clearly ditched us. Now we are going to review our stand to support the government led by him,” said BJP’s state unit spokesperson Sanjay Seth.

After having serious differences with Soren on ways to tackle Maoists,the CM’s decision today could lead to eventual parting of ways of two uneasy allies in the state,said a senior BJP leader.

Party leaders were not willing to say much on record,though. Most of them said the party had “taken note of the development” and “some action would definitely be taken against Soren”.

Soren,who quietly slipped out of Parliament after the vote,made vague statements on his decision. “Jo kiya,so kiya (whatever had to be done,was done),” he said.

Soren’s act,in a way,became the highlight of an evening when the vote on the cut motion got reduced to an academic exercise after the BSP,SP and the RJD didn’t join the Opposition.

A cut motion moved by CPI’s Gurudas Dasgupta was defeated by a margin of 88 votes (201-289),while another cut motion moved by Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj was defeated by a 162-246 division.

Soren,next to Trinamool’s Sudeep Bandopadhyay and DMK’s TKS Elangovan,had earlier hit the red button when the first motion was put to vote implying he was opposing the BJP’s motion.

BJP Deputy Leader Gopinath Munde walked up to him to check if something was amiss but Soren was again seen filling up the red slip,supporting the UPA.

JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav and BJP MP Nishikant Dubey asked Soren about his support to UPA and Dubey was then seen apprising senior leaders Advani,Sushma and Yashwant Sinha about Soren’s vote.

A senior BJP leader,requesting anonymity,reflected the wider mood in the party,and said that most MPs “were uniformly incensed” by Soren’s action and many had called for “withdrawal of party support” to the Soren-led government. Some BJP leaders felt Soren “may have cut a deal with the Congress,with a key role for his son Hemant Soren and Babulal Marandi in the state”.

A visibly happy Hemant,however,refused to comment,when contacted by The Indian Express,at Parliament House premises.

BJP general secretary and former Jharkhand BJP chief Arjun Munda told The Indian Express that “the party would each a definitive decision in a day or two,even when they had taken the issue very seriously”.

A BJP leader also claimed that Soren’s action was a “result of CBI pressure on Soren”. On Monday,however,the BJP Parliamentary Party spokesperson had said that Soren,as also another JMM MP,Kameshwar Baitha (who’s in jail),“would vote along with the NDA and the non-Congress bloc” on cut motions.

The Congress sought to downplay Soren’s vote maintaining that the JMM continued to be with the UPA at the Centre notwithstanding its alliance with the BJP in the state. Congress sources said the “party was still open to the idea of forming a Congress-JMM government in Jharkhand if,“at any point of time,Shibu gives up his claim for the CM’s post”.

AICC in-charge of Jharkhand K Keshava Rao told The Indian Express that he was “constantly in touch” with the JMM chief to “ensure” that he supported the UPA government when it came to cut motions.

“He (Soren) is with the UPA. His support to the government at the Centre and his alliance with the BJP in the state are entirely different issues. I did ask him that he must vote for the government in Parliament. Frankly,we are not taking his vote that seriously.”

Asked about the party’s stance if Soren were to seek Congress’s support in future to form the government in the state,Rao said,“It is true that we did not want him as Chief Minister. There is not much to talk about it right now.”

Soren’s move comes at a time when he has failed to persuade any one of his party’s 18 MLAs — including his son Hemant and daughter-in-law Sita — to quit an Assembly seat to help him win before June 30 to stay in power.

Also,on July 20,the apex court is slated to hear the kidnapping and murder case of his private secretary Shashi Nath Jha dating back to 1994. Jha’s brother Vijaynath,daughter Preeti and friend and co-petitioner Mukesh Baba had appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to get them justice.

His allies suspect that Soren,who lost the Tamar bypoll only to quit as the CM leading to imposition of President’s rule in Jharkhand on January 19 last year,may not contest polls and,instead,enter into a bargain with the UPA partners to instal son Hemant as CM.

Said Deepak Kumar,JD(U)’s district unit secretary: “Everybody knows Guruji (Soren) does not do anything without weighing its pros and cons.”

The JMM in the state declined to comment but its senor leader Suraj Mandal sought to play it down: “As far as I know,he voted for the UPA by sheer mistake…he pressed the wrong button.”

Muslim vote,Hindi heartland politics: why Maya & the two Yadavs took a U-turn

Express News Service

New Delhi,April 27

IN politics,if a week is a long time,then four weeks since the day Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee rose to present the Budget has the feel of a lifetime.

The Budget saw a near unprecedented walkout and the political heavyweight Finance Minister had to present it only to Treasury benches. The SP,RJD and BSP,having extended letters of unconditional support when the UPA came to power,were the biggest cause of concern for UPA II suddenly conscious of its wafer-thin majority as the Opposition was united in the walkout.

Now,suddenly,on the day the Finance Bill was scheduled to be passed,all these three parties from the Hindi heartland helped the UPA sail through.

Says a senior Congress MP: “It is not the three-line whip that is required to save governments or pass Bills these days. It’s about the three letters,CBI.” This is an apparent reference to cases against all the three.

But that’s only part of the explanation.

Despite the Congress in UP having made attacking Mayawati its foremost priority,the BSP leader announced in Lucknow that she would not just abstain but she would “vote” with the government as she’s worried about “communal forces.”

Mayawati’s support could also be about avoiding being seen as part of any plan to destabilise the government when the mood in the country is not for a mid-term poll. Further,saying that we are “preventing communal forces” works to secure Muslim support in a context where Mayawati has been the CM thrice with BJP support. Mayawati has also campaigned for Narendra Modi in Gujarat — this is the time for trying to correct course.

Other benefits could be a hope that this support would yield to a tempering of the Congress position of the single-point agenda it seems to have at the moment — wooing Dalits back and attacking Mayawati’s “misrule.” Ten Congress yatras are on in the state currently.

As for the SP,it’s been keen to distance itself from the Congress and look for space outside the Congress and the BSP after Amar Singh’s departure. The pro-Left positioning may have been adopted to help get some space now hard to secure in the complicating picture that UP presents as the battle begins to appear bi-polar,a choice between the BSP and Congress in the run-up to the Assembly polls in 2012.

The SP and the RJD are lost without power both at the Centre and in their state. They have noted that the “fourth front” did not work in the 2009 polls and are keen to not go “too far” politically from the UPA. A toehold in the Centre is better than nothing.

The RJD,with four MPs and an increasingly uncertain future,is keen to work on an alliance for the state elections due in a few months. Not wanting to be seen going against the Congress or the Left may mean a hope for some sort of electoral arrangement with either or both? Wanting to keep their Muslim constituents on board could be a common factor in not queering the anti-UPA pitch too high.

Sources said that while Lalu was more inclined to vote against the UPA,Mulayam argued that the SP could not be seen to vote with the BJP. To buttress this point,Mulayam is learnt to have recounted his experience of Kalyan Singh saying that their association turned out to be too costly in the Lok Sabha elections. He is learnt to have told Lalu how his bahu (Dimple Yadav) lost to Congress in the Ferozabad by-polls as Muslims deserted him because of Kalyan Singh.

Mulayam,sources said,quoted Ram Manohar Lohia to Lalu that smaller parties need to demonstrate “flexibility and pragmatism” when allied with large parties.

But a key factor in the equation is the Women’s Bill,which hangs like a sword on the heads of both the Yadavs in the 15th Lok Sabha. Both are aware that now that it has been passed by the Rajya Sabha,and with the Congress,BJP and Left supportive of it,the chances of the Bill being introduced in the Lok Sabha suddenly,are high. The one way to ensure that it is not brought to the Lok Sabha is to ensure the Congress of a smooth run on all other issues.

The SP has,on at least three other occasions,in 1999 when the Congress was in the running to form an alternative government,then in 2002 on Kalam’s candidature for the Presidentship and then again in 2008 on the nuclear deal,worked out deals abandoning Third Front constituents and somersaulting very visibly. This time,too,bailing the UPA out is not anything that embodies a break from the past.

However,this time,with Mayawati too having actively walked into support the Centre,it may again complicate any sense of political space or identity that the SP may want to carve out in UP.

Also,despite hopes of a political alliance that Lalu Prasad may have,with Rahul Gandhi having plans of leaving his imprint on Bihar as well,chances of a tie-up are very limited,if at all. Ironically,but,it was a combination of Kalyan Singh and Lohia’s principles that made SP chief Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad to beat a hasty retreat leaving the Left parties in lurch during the cut motion against the UPA II.