BJP seeks fresh polls in Jharkhand

Jharkhand Chief Minister Shibu Soren's crushing defeat in the Tamar assembly bye-election has prompted the Bhartiya Janata Party to demand immediate imposition of the President's rule and fresh assembly polls along with the Lok Sabha elections.

Soren losing to Jharkhand Party candidate Gopal Krishna by a margin of 9000 votes clearly shows that the people of Jharkhand have rejected him to continue as the chief minister, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told media persons in New Delhi on Thursday.

Pointing out that there had been rampant government-level corruption three years since the BJP was unseated from Jharkhand, he said the Congress, Sonia Gandhi and Lalu Prasad should stop playing with the future of Jharkhand.

"Political theatre of absurds must end," he said.

Soren actually wanted to contest from the Santhal area where he is treated as a demi-god, while Tamar is a constituency of the Congress influence. As such, Prasad thinks the Congress deliberately ditched Soren as it fits into the party's policy of 'use and throw'.

For the Congress, Soren's utility must have been over, he added.