NDA supporters throng the Morabadi ground in Ranchi to celebrate the return of the Arjun Munda government. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, March 12: One of the Independent legislators, now a minister in the second government headed by Arjun Munda, spent the night of February 28 in a city hotel where Shibu Soren and his trusted lieutenants had been put up. The next day, the same legislator accompanied an NDA delegation to Raj Bhavan.

Another Independent legislator, again a minister in the new cabinet, was in another hotel on March 9, holding discussions with Congress leaders. The day after, he was sitting with the NDA in the Vidhan Sabha. It does not require too much intelligence to conclude that that both the UPA and NDA have been held to ransoma strength of 36 members in the Assembly.

Such contradictions and lack of logic raise serious doubts about the longevity of the Munda government. Soren fell in less than 10 days and while Munda might last longer, he must be reconciled to a spell of President's rule sooner rather than later.

Munda also sprang a surprise by including one of Soren's ministers, Kamlesh Singh, in his cabinet. The solitary NCP member of the Assembly had taken oath of office under Soren on March 2 and was allotted the portfolio of water resources. But thereafter he must have suffered the pangs of his 'inner voice' or had second thoughts or, in all likelihood, was won over by the NDA's promise of 'development'. He was hospitalised yesterday and put in the intensive