Jharkhand is all set to come under central rule, at least for a brief while, with Governor Syed Ahmed recommending placing the Assembly in suspended animation on which the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision tomorrow.

The Cabinet meeting tomorrow will consider the Governor's report against the backdrop of reluctance of major political parties to form a government in the present juncture given the delicate numbers in the Assembly.

The Governor has not accepted the outgoing Chief Minister Arjun Munda's recommendation for dissolution of Assembly to pave the way for elections after JMM withdrew support to his Government.

Congress, which has not so far demanded dissolution of the Assembly, is at the same time not in a haste for formation of a new government in Jharkhand.

The talk in the AICC is that party chief Sonia Gandhi is not that enthusiastic about having a government led by JMM with Congress support with the Madhu Koda experiment still weighing heavily on her mind.

Besides, there has been a trust deficit with the JMM leadership, given the fact that Sibu Soren has been changing sides.

Last night, Gandhi was huddled with senior leaders like P Chidambaram, Sushilkumar Shinde, A K Antony, Ahmed Patel and AICC in-charge for Jharkhand Shakeel Ahmed, where she is learnt to have voiced her apprehensions about joining hands with JMM in the state.

Sibu's son Hemant Soren, who was Deputy Chief Minister in the Munda government, today arrived here with senior JMM leaders like Simon Marandi, Mathura Mahato, Champai Soren and Haaji Hussain Ansari and met Congress MLAs as well as CLP leader Rajinder Prasad Singh to explore the possibility of forming a new government in alliance with Congress.

The state leadership of Congress is in favour of forming a government with JMM. The state Congress MLAs led by Singh later met AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi. Dwivedi, however, remained tightlipped about the meeting.

Talking to PTI, Hemant, who earlier had a telephonic talk with Shakeel Ahmed, said "frequent elections require huge expenditure, which ultimately burden the electorate."

"I am in favour of forming a new government and it has to be an alliance government since no single party either JMM or Congress has the mandate for it."

He, however, parried a query on whether JMM is agreeable to a government led by a Congress Chief Minister. "My priority is that people's interests should be protected, whichever government is formed," was his cautious refrain.

Sources in Congress say that since the party has not taken a position on dissolving the state assembly, Governor may invite even Congress to form a government at a later stage if JMM, after being invited first, fails to muster up the number.

Lalu Prasad, whose RJD has five MLAs in the the 82-member Jharkhand Assembly, had also demanded that the Assembly be kept under suspended animation.

At the AICC briefing, Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi said his party is waiting for the Governor's report and the Cabinet decision first after which it will decide its future course of action.

In the 82-member state assembly, BJP and JMM have 18 members each. The Munda government had the support of six members of All Jharkhand Students' Union, two of JD (U), two independents and one nominated member who has voting right in a trial of strength.

Opposition Congress has a total of 13 members, Jharkhand Vikas Morcha(P)11 and RJD 5 in the assembly. CPI-ML(L), Marxist Coordination Party, Jharkhand Party (Ekka), Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch and Jai Bharat Samta Party have one member each besides an independent.