Congress watches as BJP changes tune

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 28. Even as the National Democratic Alliance's preferred chief ministerial candidate for Bihar, Mr Nitish Kumar, rushed to Bihar hoping to make his claim to form a government before the Governor, the Congress(I) began the process of consultation with its MLAs to arrive at a decision on support to a Rashtriya Janata Dal government.

The Congress(I) spokesperson, Mr Ajit Jogi, confirmed that talks were on with the RJD at the ``formal and informal level.'' Mr Prem Gupta, RJD Rajya Sabha MP, reportedly close to the RJD president, had been in touch with Congress leaders.

The Congress(I) is also hoping to rush two observers, including Mrs. Mohsina Kidwai, to Bihar even as pressure from its MPs is building up in favour of supporting the RJD. ``How can we allow a NDA government to be formed in Bihar when we have taken up the RSS issue at the Centre in a big way?'' a Congress(I) leader asked. Groups of party MPs met the party president, Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, favouring support for the RJD, with the Karnataka MPs especially vocal. Certainly, the party seems to be tilting in favour of support for the RJD.

As for the Bharatiya Janata Party, it has begun contradicting its own passionately favoured argument till yesterday that the single largest pre-poll alliance ``must'' be invited first by the Governor.

There is also a move to repeat a Uttar Pradesh in Bihar by putting the newly elected assembly in ``suspended animation.''

The BJP, it seems, is hoping that given enough time it will be able to form an NDA government by breaking some other parties, a hope fuelled by fears about a split within the Congress(I).

Having failed to secure the position of being the single largest pre-poll formation - the RJD and CPI(M) alliance have beaten the NDA to this position by two seats - the party today extended a different argument. Parties which had fought the electoral battle against the ``jungle-raj'' of the RJD had no moral right to offer it any support of any kind now, the BJP stated, forgetting it had taken the support of the Telugu Desam Party, the Indian National Lok Dal and the National Conference in the Twelfth Lok Sabha having fought a bitter election against them. Its stated political ``mantra'' then was ``we do not believe in political untouchability.''

``We want to give Bihar a clean, honest and transparent government,'' Mr. M Venkaiah Naidu, BJP spokesperson and general secretary, said today. And he emphasised that it would not be right for the parties which had launched public agitations against Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav's ``jungle-raj'' to join hands with him now. In short, the BJP has taken upon itself to advise its political rivals what they should not do.

Without being specific on where the NDA would get support from, Mr. Naidu claimed that it was in a ``better position'' to form a government.

Mr. Naidu was also asked whether the NDA chief ministerial aspirant would like to serve Bihar as an Opposition leader if the NDA failed to form a government or would he then prefer to stay on as a Cabinet Minister at the Centre. The answer was non- committal.

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