While a former chief minister, Madhu Koda, is being investigated for unaccounted wealth, the new holder of the position has a biodata replete with charges of criminal conduct. If Soren is still a free man, the reason is the prosecution's failure to prove the allegations not so much because of legal deficiencies as because of the behind-the-scene role played by his powerful political patrons.

As the Delhi high court said in 2007 while acquitting Soren in a murder case, the CBI had “miserably” failed to prove his complicity in the crime, suggesting that the lapse was not accidental. The judgment had followed Soren's resignation as the coal minister in the Manmohan Singh government, the first instance of a Union minister stepping down because of his suspected involvement in murder.

The BJP had been vociferous at the time in its condemnation of the UPA for harbouring “tainted” ministers. But, now, the BJP has had little hesitation in extending support to Soren although his taint has only been technically erased. For once, however, the Congress seems to have acted wisely by refusing to accept Soren's demand to make him the chief minister. Its argument, however, that his status has become higher than that of a chief minister carries the hint that it may not be averse to doing business with him at a later stage.

But, for the present, it is the BJP which has run ahead of the Congress in its opportunism despite Nitin Gadkari's purported opposition to the role of “cash, caste and criminals” in politics. The Congress's expectation is that the BJP's association with Soren will prevent the saffron outfit from claiming the high moral ground in Jharkhand and elsewhere in the near future and, therefore, will benefit the Congress in a propaganda war. But, to most people, the latter is only making a virtue out of necessity since it is difficult to say whether such perceptions work in real life.

If they did, then the JMM would not have retained its influence in the state - it won 18 seats this time against 17 in 2005 - although Soren's reputation has suffered a steep decline in recent years, at least among the urban middle classes. It is not only the murder case which has tarnished his image, but also the resurfacing of the three-decade-old attack on a Muslim village in the Jamtara area in which six policemen and 10 others were killed with poison-tipped arrows.

Leaving aside the JMM, the parties which have gained in the recent election are the Congress, which raised its tally of seats from nine to 14, and its partner, the newly-formed Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, led by former chief minister Babulal Marandi. The latter has been a good catch for the Congress because of his cleaner image although that is not saying much in the land of Soren and Madhu Koda. However, the fact that the JVM could win 11 seats in its first election showed that Marandi's base among the tribals was not inconsiderable.

The worst performance has been that of the NDA with the BJP's tally of seats dropping from 30 to 18 and that of the JD (U) from six to two. What this means is that the saffron group's tale of sorrow has continued from Maharashtra and Haryana to Jharkhand. Although Gadkari has proudly claimed that his party's presence in the Jharkhand government will mean that the BJP will now be in power in nine states, few will believe that the party is up and running.

In fact, its partnership with the JMM is likely to prove to be as problematic as its earlier opportunistic tie-ups with Mayawati in U.P. since Soren can prove to be as temperamental as the Dalit queen. The BJP may not find it easy, therefore, to sustain its claim that it is extending support to the JMM to ensure a period of stability because, as the Madhu Koda episode showed, social tranquility is not the first objective of the new legislators and ministers.

As the figures compiled by the Association for Democratic Rights have shown, a list of 37 MLAs who were in the fray had collectively experienced an astonishing increase of 3,454 per cent in their net worth. Not surprisingly, the list is headed by the JMM's Bhushan Tirkey, whose personal assets grew by more than 100,000 per cent over the last five years. The empowerment of the adivasis in their own state, therefore, has been more at the individual than communitarian level. Few will assert that the process will slow down under the JMM-BJP government. (IPA Service)