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The BJP said its aim in Jharkhand will be to provide a stable coalition government with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha that will last its full term.
"We have formed government in Jharkhand previously also. There was President's Rule in the state and we stopped making attempts to form a stable government. But a government had to be formed and that is why at the opportune time we decided to stake claim to form a stable government," BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters in New Delhi. Asked about the BJP-JMM formula to run the government and if the chief minister's post would be rotated, Hussain said "as of now the government will be formed under the leadership of Arjun Munda. There are no conditions to forming this government."
To a poser if senior leader Yashwant Sinha was unhappy over the developments in Jharkhand as he has said in an interview to a newspaper that he is the best candidate (for the post of CM) for a state like Jharkhand, Hussain said, "I am regularly in touch with Sinha. I can say that he he has never proposed his own name for any post in the party." When reminded that leaders had earlier said that the BJP Parliamentary Board would not discuss the Jharkhand issue any further and, despite this statement, the chief minister of Jharkhand was chosen without a meeting of the top decision making body, Hussain said the move came after gaining complete consensus.
Asked repeatedly if senior leader L K Advani would attend the swearing-in ceremony at Jharkhand, he said several stalwart leaders of the party will be present. Advani is said to have favoured the baton being handed over to Yashwant Sinha, who, he believes, will bring a "qualitative difference" to the issue of governance in Jharkhand, thanks to his experience as Union minister for finance and external affairs.
BJP leader Arjun Munda will be sworn in as Jharkand's new chief minister on Saturday, heading a BJP-JMM coalition with the governor inviting him to form a government on Thursday shortly after the Union Cabinet recommended revocation of President's Rule in the state. 42-year-old Munda, who is getting the chief minister's post for the third time, will be the eighth CM in 10 years since the mineral rich state was carved out of Bihar on November 15, 2000.
No chief minister has ever completed a full term in the state. The BJP and the JMM formed a coalition government on December 30 last year under JMM chief Sibu Soren. But it lasted for only five months.