NDA hopes win-win: legal snub, stronger anti-RJD wave

Lashing out at the Centre for dissolving the assembly only in order to prevent the formation of a ‘‘popular’’ government led by Nitish Kumar, NDA chairman Atal Behari Vajpayee—speaking in public for the first time in several weeks—demanded that assembly elections be held ‘‘as soon as possible.’’

The NDA was set to take up the challenge ‘‘in the electoral battlefield and defeat those who have tried to throttle democracy,’’ Vajpayee said.

Echoing his views, Nitish Kumar said, ‘‘If the government was in such a hurry to dissolve the assembly—at midnight, when the president was abroad—it should be equally quick in holding elections in the state.’’ He also demanded that Buta Singh ‘‘who is acting like a UPA spokesman’’ must be removed and an ‘‘impartial’’ governor appointed to ensure free and fair polls.

Buta Singh’s charge that NDA was indulging in ‘‘horsetrading’’ was sheer ‘‘bakwaas’’ (nonsense), Kumar repeatedly said, insisting that the rebel MLAs had flocked to the NDA on their own accord and were neither kidnapped nor lured away.

Leaders of the NDA, who were scheduled to release their ‘‘report card’’ detailing the failures of one year of UPA rule, decided to postpone the event and focus exclusively on Bihar developments.

In a statement, the NDA claimed that ‘‘more than 130 MLAs’’ had pledged support to Nitish Kumar who was ‘‘all set to stake his claim to form the government today.’’ It was to prevent the formation of this government that the UPA ‘‘took the shamelessly hasty decision to recommend dissolution of the state assembly’’, displaying ‘‘political intolerance of the worst kind.’’

Despite the claim of winning the support of more than 130 MLAs, Nitish Kumar refused to spell out how many Lok Janashakti Party legislators had actually offered support to him yesterday. ‘‘We do not want to give the numbers—it will be better to ask them,’’ he said in reply to questions.

NDA leaders later said they had received the assured support of 17 independents and 13 LJP dissidents, making it to the halfway mark of 122. With this number in hand, the ‘‘momentum’’ had shifted in their favour and more LJP legislators as well members of the SP and BSP would have come out in support by this morning.

However, Nitish Kumar’s hesitation in staking claim gave ample opportunity to Laloo Prasad Yadav to play his cards and get the Cabinet to make pre-emptive midnight move to dissolve the assembly.

BJP and JD(U) leaders privately admitted that they had no real regret at not having made the first move since ‘‘both options suited us very well.’’ In case the NDA had managed to form the government in Patna, a ‘‘livid Laloo’’ would have demanded Paswan’s scalp and rocked the UPA government at the Centre.

The second option of fresh elections ‘‘also helps us because this time there will be total polarisation between the pro and anti-Laloo forces and we will win a clear majority,’’ a BJP leader said.

Although Arun Jaitley has held out the option of going to court against the ‘‘unconstitutional’’ decision, the NDA would rather focus on the political battle ahead. Their calculation is that LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan who had acted as a ‘‘spoiler’’ in the February polls and drawn a chunk of the anti-Laloo votes would be reduced to a non-entity in the coming elections ‘‘because he was willing to join hands with RJD in the end.’’

Besides the improved prospect in Bihar, the ‘‘biggest advantage outside the state is that the decision damages the image of Manmohan Singh,’’ Jaitley said.

It was his ‘‘worst action’’ since he took over as prime minister a year ago, Jaitley insisted.