Sharad Yadav denies passing remarks on Bihar Governor

While speaking during the zero hour, Chatterjee had said that the Opposition’s stand on Bihar had been proved right with Kumar’s failure to muster a majority and a senior Cabinet minister’s admission that the Governor had erred in inviting the NDA to form the government.

Speaking to mediapersons later, Yadav justified the Governor’s decision saying it was “constitutionally correct” to invite the NDA, which had claimed the support of 151 MLAs, more than the support claimed by the RJD. The NDA didn’t claim to have a majority and the Governor too had no doubts, Yadav asserted. That is why, he added, Pandey had asked Nitish to prove his majority in 10 days.

Yadav also expressed doubts about the Rashtriya Janata Dal government led by Rabri Devi proving its majority in the Bihar Assembly, “where the people’s mandate is fractured”, and asserted that Nitish would continue to be the leader of the NDA in Bihar politics.

Yadav said the NDA had hoped to win the vote of confidence as it felt that those who had fought both the NDA and RJD would remain “non-aligned” in the voting, and that the assessment went wrong as far as the Congress party was concerned.

On the statement of new RSS chief K C Sudarshan urging Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to scrap the Constitution and appoint Swadeshi economists to advise the Government, Yadav said the NDA Ministry was committed to the alliance’s agenda alone. The Government, he pointed out, had appointed a commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice M N Venkatachaiah and had promised not to tinker with the basic structure.