Jharkhand, Bihar disappointing but we won’t eat lizard: Pranab

‘‘Just because we are facing a difficult situation, we are not eating lizards. The mood of the party is fine. A coalition government throws up its own compulsions, difficulties and we are trying to manage them.’’

On the Supreme Court advancing the trial of strength in Jharkhand to March 11, he said, ‘‘There is no harm in the date being advanced. It was after all the Supreme Court which earlier installed a government in Uttar Pradesh. What is so unprecedented? Which way they should vote is for the 81 MLAs (in Jharkhand) to decide. It will be ultimately proved on the floor of the House.’’

Describing the Congress as a party of ‘‘hard boiled’’ politicians, he said that such ‘‘ups and downs’’ were common in electoral politics. He refused to be drawn into questions on whether the party perceived last fortnight’s developments as a low.

‘‘Running a coalition has its own compulsions and difficulties. Of course, we could have done better in Bihar and Jharkhand.’’

Mukherjee, however, conceded that their pre-election campaign did not create ‘‘an atmosphere of unity’’ in Bihar to get them beyond the 121 mark.

‘‘The statements and counter-statements (referring to the spat between Laloo Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan) created an atmosphere which did not carry the message of unity among the people. That was the crux. It was because of this that the united image of the UPA could not be projected.’’

‘‘In politics you sometimes have to back two horses. Coalition politics is all about the ability to manage apparent contradictions. We are managing larger contradictions (with the Left parties) at the Centre. There were contradictions (in Bihar) which we could not reconcile but let me tell you, we did not create these contradictions.’’

On the developments in Jharkhand, Mukherjee said that after the results the party ‘‘decided’’ that there should be a UPA government. He said the Governor applied his ‘‘discretion’’ and administered the oath of office to Shibu Soren.