BJP non-committal on Jharkhand CM candidate for Assembly polls

BJP today remained non-committal whether its Jharkhand unit would contest the upcoming Assembly elections later this year under senior party leader Yashwant Sinha, who is hogging the limelight with his agitation against the Hemant Soren government. "There is a network of leaders in Jharkhand, and it was reflected during the Lok Sabha elections in the state where BJP won 12 of the 14 seats," BJP's national general secretary Rajiv Pratap Rudi said sidestepping a query on party's stand on its chief ministerial candidate for the Assembly polls.

Asked it could be believed that Sinha would lead the next Assembly elections for BJP, its national spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters, "The Constitution has given freedom of belief ... you believe whatever ... as national spokesman of the BJP, when a direction comes from the party president at the right time we will try to make you believe (about the leadership issue)."

Since Jharkhand was created on November 15, 2000, there have been only tribal chief ministers with BJP ruling under Babulal Marandi once and Arjun Munda thrice after Marandi quit the party and floated the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha.

Hussain and Rudy were here as BJP president Rajnath Singh's emissaries to urge Sinha to secure bail and participate in the party's statewide agitation beginning June 16. Sinha is in judicial custody from June 3 after he was arrested the previous day for alleged assault of a senior government official during a demonstration in protest against the power crisis in Hazaribagh.