Inordinate delay taking place in finalising all 12 names in the Cabinet has not only made the Opposition worried but turned its partner restless as well. Pre-poll alliance partner AJSU expressing its displeasure over the time taken has even equated this with the return of older days when fractured mandates used to rule the State.
The party has come up officially and expressed its resentment when its leader in the House and also a Minister in the Raghubar Das Government Chandra Prakash Chaudhary termed the delay uncalled for. “When the mandate is full and Government is stable, delay in appointing all the Cabinet Ministers should not have happened. It sends out a wrong signal,” said Chaudhary, who was the only among five MlAs from his party to take oath along with Chief Minister Raghubar Das and three others at the time of Government formation, on Sunday.
More than a month has passed since then and now talks about consultations with handful MlAs of Congress and JVM with the BJP are rife. Das has already visited Delhi once and it is being perceived that any expansion is possible only after the Delhi Assembly polls are over. While the Congress has expressed its fear about poaching and called upon Governor Syed Ahmed last week, the AJSU is also turning restless over the matter.
“It is the prerogative of the Chief Minister but we are of the view that several traditions have been broken this time in Jharkhand when no Goa and Jaipur trips were required to form a Government! No horse-trading was required after the imposition of President’s Rule! But what is now being felt that while several traditions were broken one is still alive and continuing. Message going out is the even the new dispensation is not refrained from jode-tod ki rajniti and in fact promoting horse trading,” AJSU spokesperson Deo Sharan Bhagat told The Pioneer.
The ruling BJP alliance had got comfortable majority of 42 in the House of 81 after Assembly poll which was a first to any pre-poll bloc in Jharkhand. Nevertheless the BJP-five short of the majority of its own-seems to be eyeing MlAs from other parties. This has also sent shock waves across to AJSU also whose support to the incumbent Government is crucial as of now.
“That is why we went for a pre-poll alliance and people got a clear picture in their mind. They responded as well and now it was the time to deliver the promises made. Do we want to keep the train stranded at one place for 59 more months,” asked Bhagat referring to the five-year tenure and alleged that the delay has opened door for dirty politics which would not be any different from what Jharkhand had seen in so many years, a disappointment for the electorates.