If the so-called 28:28 formula upset the applecart of the Arjun Munda Government, another pre-coalition blueprint between the Congress and the JMM of sharing the 14 lok Sabha seats in 10:4 ratio has come to haunt Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who completes his 100 days in office on October 20.
And the 10:4 formula has been trashed by nobody else than Shibu Soren, who has asserted at least twice in recent days that there has been no deal on seat-sharing for the lok Sabha elections and that the party will fight at least seven out of 14 seats.
The 28:28 (months) formula pertained to sharing power by the BJP and JMM by rotation. An embarrassed Congress, as a damage control measure, has played down Soren Senior's assertion. "Guruji has said saath:saath chunav larenge (will fight elections together) and not saat:saat (Seven:Seven)," explained Congress State president Sukhdeo Bhagat, who was not initially in favour of forming a Government in alliance with the JMM.
The Chief Minister has maintained a studied silence over his father's stand just he had done when Guruji had invoked the 28:28 'jinn' to wrest power from Arjun Munda. However, the new stand-off has thrown open several interpretations in the political circle.
The JMM said it was aimed at keeping the morale of the party workers high since the latter are not happy with the humiliating deal signed by the party with the Congress. "The Congress can't even manage 10 winnable candidates," said a close aide of Soren senior.
Moreover, the JMM is also upset with the Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh playing a super chief minister and not giving Hemant Soren a free hand in running the State. "Alliance partners also bulldoze the Chief Minister to take decisions that suit them, particularly on transfer-posting of senior officers. We are also upset with a Congress minister opening ridiculing Hemant Soren's track record on developing Dumka his own constituency," said a JMM core committee member. "So, it is a kind of message to the Congress to mend ways or be ready not to expect much from the JMM during the parliamentary elections," he added.
A Congress leader, on the other hand, said that Guruji has expressed his unhappiness with the performance of the Hemant Government apprehending that the coalition might not hold the ground in the next election with such a work. The coalition partner is also seeking consolation from the fact that Hemant Soren has not spoken anything on the deal. "We think that Hemant is now the leader of the JMM and his words should be final in the JMM," said a senior Congress leader.
Sources close to the Chief Minister said that confusion over the seat-sharing has also cropped up as the seats to be contested by both the parties were not identified while they struck a deal. "So, both the JMM and Congress are making their cadres poll ready in all the 14 constituencies. Once the seats are identified, everybody will fall in line," he added.
But then, Shibu Soren has rubbed salt on the wounds of another ally i.e. RJD, saying lalu Prasad was paying price for his misdeeds. Though it might be an honest confession of a politician, but it was not politically correct and has not gone well with the RJD.
Ironically, the RJD has not reacted to Senior Soren's jibe, knowing fully well that any fissures in the coalition at this juncture will make the jail life of lalu Prasad "uncomfortable". The confusion in the political circle has given bureaucrats to take their job easy and not even taking the ministers seriously. "We are happy that our ministers are involved in some controversy or the other. They have no time to deal with the files and review our functioning and such a situation suits the babudom," pointed out a senior IAS officer.