Soren Ambitious of Being King, Not Kingmaker

Amid speculations over next Jharkhand chief minister, JMM chief Shibu Soren has made it clear that he wanted to be king, not kingmaker, and that no political party was an ‘untouchable’.

Soren, whose JMM has won 18 seats in the 81-member assembly thus holding key to the formation of next government, said that ‘everything’ depends on him.

“I do not want to be kingmaker, I want to be king. It’s not important now what Arjun Munda (of the BJP) and Babulal Marandi (of the JVM-P) are stating. Now everything depends on me,” Soren told reporters in Bokaro, a day after the assembly elections threw up a badly fractured verdict.

Both Munda and Marandi are former chief ministers.

In response to a question whether he would accept a central cabinet berth as suggested by some Congress leaders in place of chief minister’s rank, he categorically said that there ‘was no such possibility’.

“My role is important for a stable and corruption free government in Jharkhand.”

Besides, he made it clear that he could go any which way.

“No political party is untouchable for me. I can go with anyone who is ready to give a strong and stable government to boost development in the state as well as a corruption free government.”

“I am the key person in formation of the state government. It is now time to teach some lessons to the opportunists who several times ditched me, which resulted in unstable and corrupt governments,” he said.

While the BJP and the JD-U got 20 seats, the Congress-JVM-P alliance got 25 seats.