Bihar Congmen urge Sonia to dump Rabri

PATNA, OCT 18: As pressure grows on the Congress to withdraw support to the Rabri Devi government following the recent spate of violence i...

PATNA, OCT 18: As pressure grows on the Congress to withdraw support to the Rabri Devi government following the recent spate of violence in Bihar, a two-member AICC team in Siwan to find out the reasons behind the massacres and submit a report to Sonia Gandhi described the situation as serious today.

AICC members Jagdish Tytler and Ram Naresh Yadav, who visited Tahira and Majahidpur yesterday, said the Rabri government has to strive to protect the lives of innocent people. 8220;The situation in Siwan is explosive,8221; Tytler said. 8220;There is no caste or communal violence there as claimed by the state government. It is just an ongoing gang war between two rival factions of criminal dons.8221;

Ram Naresh Yadav described the situation as 8220;very disturbing8221; and promised to bring the facts to the notice of the party president. 8220;How can one ignore such a pathetic situation?8221; he asked.

Some senior party leaders also urged Tytler to convince Sonia to ask Congress ministers to resign from the government and Bihar Assembly Speaker Sadanand Singh to put in his papers. Asked if the Congress might withdraw support to Rabri, however, Tytler was non-committal.

Bihar PCC vice-president Padmasa Jha and secretary Lalbabu Lal, in a joint statement in Patna, said the law and order situation had touched 8220;the lowest ebb8221; and, in the given circumstances, the party8217;s continuance in the coalition ministry would further harm the Congress8217;s image and popularity. Jha also urged Sonia to visit Bihar to make an on-the-spot study of the prevailing situation.

The aggressive stance has sparked off speculation that the Congress may be getting ready to pull out of the coalition government. Sources in the Congress maintain that almost all the senior leaders of the party feel that enough is enough. They also cite the statement of Arjun Singh describing the law and order situation in Bihar as volatile. Several Congress leaders claimed that Sonia would summon Laloo for a detailed discussion on the prevailing situation soon, and make her party8217;s displeasure obvious.

The Samata Party and BJP have, meanwhile, intensified their attack on the Congress for its support to the RJD government. Union Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar told newspersons today that the Congress owed a clarification to the people for the present massacres and added that it had cheated Bihar.