PATNA: The movement for a separate Jharkhand State has exposed the chinks in the armour of the ruling Janata Dal and the Congress in Bihar with several top rung leaders supporting the demand for statehood notwithstanding the official stand of the State party leadership opposing it.

The issue has also driven a wedge between the Left parties with the CPI, IPF and the Marxist Coordination Committee favoring the demand and the CPI (M) vehemently opposing it.

Political observers attribute CPI(M)’s opposition to the demand to the fact that the votaries of Jharkhand State insist on inclusion of areas of West Bengal into the proposed State,

The recent bandh and economic blockade program of the All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) and the Jharkhand People’s Party which petered out without making any significant impact on the momentum of the movement, however, succeeded infecting serious differences on the issue in both the ruling party and the Opposition Congress. Political observers feel that the Congress which was yet to gain its moorings in the aftermath of the debacle in the last Lok Sabha elections and later due to growing dissidence, was pushed to the wall with several of its senior leaders belonging to the plateau region coming out openly in support of the creation of a separate State, The insiders in the party maintain that the BPCC Vice President, Chandan Bagchi’s support to the movement was largely at the behest of Union Welfare Minister Sitaram Kesri and former State party chief Taliq Anwar both of whom were opposed to the BPCC President and leader of Opposition, Dr Jagannath Mishra.

Bagchi was the only BPCC office bearer to attend the September 20 all-party meet at Rachi called by the JMM (Soren) faction without the prior approval of the State party leadership.

Insiders say that Bagchi action was aimed at embarrassing Dr. Mishra as the lawyer has already openly expressed himself against any bifurcation of the State.

It was not the Congress alone which was rattled by dissidence in the wake of the AJSU-JPP agitation as the Janata Dal also had to face the music with three of its ministers and an equal number of legislators supporting the Jharkhand case,

Karamchand Bhagat, Mangal Singh Lamaye, Giriwar Pandey (all ministers) and Lalchand Mahto, Gopi Nath Singh and Gautam Sagar Rana (all legislators) al a news conference at Ranchi recently asserted that they would resign if the State Cabinet took any decision against creation of a separate State.

They also expressed their willingness to resign from the legislature if the 81 MLAs from the Chotanagpur and Santhal Parganas resolved to resign their seats to press the demand for statehood, Chief Minister Laloo Prasad who executed apolitical somersault” by saying that a separate Jharkhand could be created “only over my dead body” after having consistently put the bonus for creation of a State on the Center to keep the votaries of Jharkhand in good humor, was finding himself ill at case, particularly because of the growing dissidence in the party, According to political observers, another thing which was worrying Prasad was the support extended to the movement by the CPI, IPP and the MCC.

With the JMM having split and only the Krishna Mardi faction of the morcha with nine members in the lower House supporting Prasad, the survival of his minority Government was largely dependent on the support of the Left parties. The CPI, MCC and the IPF together have 30 members in the State Assembly.

The Jharkhand watchers feel that the support of the Mardi group to the Laloo Prasad Ministry could not be taken for granted as it might decide to withdraw support to the Government in the event of erosion in its mass base for siding with Prasad who had come out openly against division of the State and even undertaken a campaign to “expose the Jharkhand leaders for playing into the hands of Center.”

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