Oppn asks President to intervene, blocks Parliament

Taken by surprise, the Congress is now faced with the predicament of keeping its flock of 23 MLAs in the state together till the vote of confidence is held 10 days from now. There have been reports that the NDA was in touch with several Congress MLAs although senior leaders here expressed confidence that the state unit would stay intact.

Echoing the party’s fears, Pranab Mukherjee, who was part of the team negotiating with Laloo, accused the Bihar Governor of “opening the field for horse trading and manipulation”. He said by inviting the NDA even when it did not have the majority, the Governor had acted in haste and abdicated his constitutional responsibility.

Defending the party’s stand, Mukherjee said PCC chief Sadanand Singh had informed the Governor over the phone last night that his party had decided to support the RJD and that a letter would be sent today.

Meanwhile, Speaker G M C Balayogi has convened a meeting of leaders of Opposition groups in the Lok Sabha to finalise how the issue of the Governor inviting the NDA to form the government can be debated.

Disclosing this here today, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said in the past there have been discussions in similar circumstances. Since the Governor is the head of a state, his conduct cannot be questioned on the floor of Parliament.

The issue rocked both Houses of Parliament with agitated Opposition members accusing the Centre of “murdering democracy”. The Lok Sabha was adjourned twice, each time for a different reason. While in the morning it was the RSS issue, in the afternoon it was Bihar.

Angry Opposition MPs, including those belonging to the RJD, Congress, the Left parties, Samajwadi Party, BSP and AIADMK, rushed to the well of the Lok Sabha as soon as it reassembled in the afternoon. They shouted slogans against the Governor and the Centre.

Speaking at the top of his voice from his seat, CPM veteran Somnath Chatterjee described the NDA government’s swearing-in as “unconstitutional and murder of parliamentary democracy”.

Repeated pleas by Margaret Alva, who was in the chair, to restore order went unheeded. The private members’ business, which was listed for the day, could not be taken up as the Opposition remained unmoved.

The BJP, expectedly, sought to defend the Governor’s move. “The people of Bihar have not given a clear-cut majority to any political party or pre-poll alliance,” party spokesperson M Venkaiah Naidu said, adding, “The fundamental message of the verdict is a clear-cut rejection of the incumbent government in the state. Barring the CPM, the core issue of every political party was ending the jungle raj in the state.”

The Government dismissed allegations that the Governor had invited Nitish Kumar under pressure from the Centre. “No one from our side has given any advice to the Governor on this matter,” Mahajan told reporters after the Lok Sabha was adjourned over the issue.

“He (the Governor) is a constitutional authority…. He did not seek any suggestions from us on who should be called,” he said.