BJP's withdrawal of support to the Shibu Soren government in Jharkhand today after a month-long unsuccessful effort to head the coalition government there is seen as a loss of face for new party chief Nitin Gadkari in his first test after taking charge.
"The party decided that enough is enough," senior party leader Arun Jaitley said after deputy chief minister and BJP leader Raghuvar Das today met Jharkhand governor and submitted a letter withdrawing support to the JMM government.
BJP's Parliamentary Board had taken the decision to withdraw the support a month ago following chief minister Shibu Soren voting against the opposition's cut motions in the Lok Sabha.
But after it was put on hold, Gadkari himself led the discussions with the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in a hope of seeing the party lead a government there.
It was Gadkari's decision to support Shibu Soren as chief minister soon after the state elections threw up a hung assembly in December 2009.
JMM had been dilly-dallying on a daily basis since April 28 on extending support to a BJP-led government. But the events are also likely to raise questions on BJP's argument that it wanted to form a government in Jharkhand to keep Congress at bay.
"BJP tried its very best to effectively lead a non-Congress combination in Jharkhand. But when we realised this was not working, the party decided that enough is enough," Jaitley said.
The Parliamentary Board's decision to withdraw support to Soren government was near unanimous with senior leaders LK Advani, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley respectively, and M M Joshi
being categorical that BJP should withdraw support.
However, Gadkari was convinced by a section of the party top brass that there was still a possibility of government formation and the Board's decision was put on hold, party sources said.
