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BJP to shift blame on Congress for Rabri's return

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

With Union Home Minister L K Advani announcing the Vajpayee government's decision to revoke President's rule in Bihar, the ruling coalition at the Centre is poised to squarely blame the Congress for the restoration of the Rashtriya Janata Dal government headed by Rabri Devi.

Advani's announcement of the decision was greeted with thumping of desks in the Lok Sabha by Opposition members including RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Pawar and others.

It was pointed out that the necessary steps to revoke central rule in Bihar would be initiated as soon as President K R Narayanan returns to the capital tonight.

High-placed government officials told this correspondent that although Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his senior Cabinet colleagues knew that the Congress would not budge from its declared position of opposing President's rule in Bihar, a meeting was nevertheless fixed yesterday between the Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Vajpayee.

The officials said Sonia's refusal to change her party's decision on Bihar was merely a formality which had to be completed in order to enable the ruling coalition to corner the Congress in the eyes of the electorate and apportion the blame for the imminent restoration of Rabri Devi's 'jungle raj'.

The officials said the prime minister's two-day Bihar tour had convinced him that the people of the state were apprehensive of Rabri Devi's return to power. When this was conveyed to his senior Cabinet colleagues, they advised him to go ahead with a meeting with the Congress chief when they were fully aware that she would not change her decision.

During this morning's Cabinet meeting to discuss the Bihar issue, Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar insisted that the government should table the statutory resolution for central rule in Bihar in the Rajya Sabha. "Why should we concede defeat before the battle begins in the Rajya Sabha?" he asked the prime minister.

However, the other allies objected to the Samata Party leader's contention and pointed out that the resolution's inevitable defeat in the Rajya Sabha would further damage the government's image. Besides, they said, the Bihar budget was pending and there were other important items on the government's parliamentary agenda. Consequently, the decision to revoke central rule in Bihar was taken and announced by the home minister in the Lok Sabha.

Despite the Samata Party's apparent dissatisfaction on the Bihar issue, it is understood the prime minister has urged the BJP's Bihar unit to take all steps to highlight the Congress as the one responsible for prolonging the agony in the state with the imminent restoration of the Rabri Devi administration. With this strategy in mind, the BJP-led ruling coalition is hoping that it will score some political points over the Congress, at least in Bihar.

Meanwhile, Laloo Yadav's followers at Bihar Nivas in the capital indicated that top state administration officials including Chief Secretary Vijay Shankar Dubey and Director General of Police T P Sinha were bound to be transferred out as soon as the Rabri Devi government was reinstated.

Former Patna district magistrate Rajbala Verma, who was transferred when central rule was imposed in the state, is bound to stage a comeback.

However, Bihar Governor S S Bhandari does not appear to be fazed at the imminent prospect of the restoration of the RJD rule. A senior home ministry official pointed out that during the prime minister's recent visit, Bhandari seemed to be as "combative" as ever.

The governor is preparing to clash again with the RJD. In less than three weeks of central rule in Bihar, Bhandari has succeeded in instituting an intelligence squad in the state bureaucracy which will report to him on the state government's misdeeds.

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