No threat to coalition govt in Jharkhand: CM Champai Soren

New Delhi: The JMM-led alliance in Jharkhand is "strong" and there is no threat to the coalition government in the state, Chief Minister Champai Soren said on Sunday amid reports of resentment brewing among a section of Congress legislators over the induction of four party MLAs as ministers.

Soren, who is in the national capital, will hold talks with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. State Congress president Rajesh Thakur has already reached Delhi "There's no issue, our alliance is strong," Champai Soren told reporters here in response to media queries on the turmoil between the JMM and the Congress over portfolio distribution.

On being asked about disgruntled Congress MLAs reaching Delhi, he said, "This is an internal matter of the Congress party, they will resolve it. I have nothing to say about that. There is no conflict between JMM and Congress and everything is absolutely fine." As many as 12 MLAs of the grand-old party have threatened to boycott the upcoming state assembly session from February 23 and head to Jaipur if the ministers are not replaced with new faces.

The JMM-led alliance in the state has 47 MLAs (JMM-29, Congress-17 and one RJD) in the 81-member assembly.

Unhappy with Congress' decision to give ministerial berths to Alamgir Alam, Rameshwar Oraon, Banna Gupta and Badal Patralekh again, the disgruntled section of Congress legislators went into a huddle Saturday at a Ranchi hotel, where JMM's new minister Basant Soren, the youngest son of party supremo Shibu Soren, reached to persuade them to change their decision.

"There is no confusion...we are all united," Basant Soren said after meeting the MLAs.