People are against mid-term poll in Jharkhand: Congress

New Delhi, Sep 15 (UNI) The Congress today said it had no role in toppling the Arjun Munda government in Jharkhand, but it did help in the formation of an alternate dispensation because the people did not want a mid-term poll.

Talking to mediapersons, party spokesman Satyavrat Chaturvedi said the BJP-led NDA governnment fell under the weight of its own contradictions.

Asked why the party supported an independent MLA -- Madhu Koda -- to become Chief Minister, he asked, '' Why there be some anomaly seen in such a situation?'' ''Our priority is not power...but to give people good governance,''he said, adding the Congress only fulfilled its political responsibility in Jharkhand.

In this context, Mr Chaturvedi said there was no government in Jharkhand and, therefore, the Congress helped in the formation of an alternate government to provide good governance.

On the criticism of the BJP that the Congress was reponsible for the fall of the Munda government, he said it was the BJP which had engineered mass defection in Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh in the recent past.

Asked if the Congress would join the proposed Koda government, Mr Chatuvedi retorted, '' What is the haste? We will take a decision at an appropriate time.'' Asked if the new government would be stable, he said, ''In politics, nothing is stable.'' When a scribe sought to know why the Congress-led UPA was propping up a former RSS leader for the Chief Minister's post, Mr Chaturvedi said Mr Koda was an elected member of the state assembly. ''Any elected member can become minister and Chief Minister,'' he pointed out.

UNI SH RL RS1936