ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

BJP intensifies drive for Rabri's dismissal

The Bharatiya Janata Party today stepped up its campaign for dismissal of the Rabri Devi government in Bihar even as life returned to normal in Biharsharief where two persons were killed in a clash between two communities during the immersion of Durga idols on Saturday, October 3.

Releasing a booklet in New Delhi on the misgovernance, financial bungling, and lawlessness in the state, BJP general secretary M Venkaiah Naidu said the party still believed Bihar was the fittest case for invoking Article 356 of the Constitution.

The fifteen-page booklet, titled Laloo-Rabri regime's 'jungle raj' must end says, "With every passing day, Bihar is being sucked deeper into the vortex of total anarchy and chaos."

Justifying the demand for imposition of President's rule, it says though the state has a government that enjoys majority support, "it has miserably failed to discharge its constitutional duties and obligations... It has presided over the systematic destruction of all institutions of the state."

The booklet, the first of a series to be released by the BJP on Bihar, says all the conditions listed by the Supreme Court, in its judgment in the S R Bommai case, for imposition of President's rule are present in Bihar. It also contains some editorials written by various newspapers on the situation in the state.

Meanwhile, Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (National Democratic Front) president Mulayam Singh Yadav has objected to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's remark that "mafia raj" prevails in Bihar.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi today, Yadav said Vajpayee was violating the dignity of his office by making such remarks after President K R Narayanan had returned the Union Cabinet's recommendation to dismiss the Bihar government.

He said BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh seemed to be more in the grip of a mafia as Sriprakash Shukla's death in a police encounter had exposed the dreaded hitman's links with five or six ministers.

Earlier, on Sunday evening, Vajpayee called on Narayanan at Rashtrapati Bhavan for about an hour.

A Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman described the meeting as a courtesy call after the prime minister's recent visit to the United States and France.

But political observers attach great significance to the meeting in view of the political scenario in the country and, especially, Bihar.

Meanwhile, in Hubli, Karnataka, Union Commerce Minister and Lok Shakti leader Ramakrishna Hegde blamed Bihar Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari for failing to make out a convincing case for Rabri Devi's dismissal.

Hegde said the constitutional machinery in Bihar had broken down and the Union Cabinet would take a fresh decision depending on the developments in the state.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report