Munda quits, independent MLA to be new CM

The expected happened today: even before he could prove his majority on the floor of the House, Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda went to the governor and conceded defeat.

He resigned from the chief ministership of the state paving the way for the election of an independent, Madhu Koda, as CM, to be supported by Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress. His swearing-in is scheduled on September 17.

The emerging scenario provoked a caustic comment from BJP President Rajnath Singh: "Hamne bahudaliya sarkar key baare mein suna tha lekin nirdaleeya sarkar? (We had heard of a multi-party government. But a government of independents?)"

Predictably, Arjun Munda railed against the Congress for causing his government to fall. "We are a victim of Congress conspiracy... It is a conspiracy hatched to remove non-Congress governments that started from 1959 with the dismissal of the Namboodripad government in Kerala," Munda told a press conference shortly after stepping down from the CM's post.

Claiming that till this morning, "some people" had approached him with certain conditions to save his government, Munda said, "I firmly told them that I would like to run a government based on principles, ideology, policies and programmes rather than succumbing to conditions."

Munda evaded a query when asked whether it was money or demand for portfolio that had been the conditions placed before him before the trust vote. But, internally, the BJP acknowledged that it was Munda and Munda alone who had cost the party the state government.