Tuesday, March 1 2005 12:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today (Mar 1, 2005) petitioned Bihar Governor Buta Singh, requesting him not to entertain the claim of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Laloo Prasad and Chief Minister Rabri Devi for forming the Government, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national vice president S K Modi said.

Modi said that State BJP president Gopal Narayan Singh and his Janata Dal united (JD-U) counterpart Vijendra Yadav submitted a letter to the Governor in this regard at Raj Bhavan in Patna this morning.

Rubbishing the claim of RJD president that, his party should be invited first for forming the Government, as it had emerged as the single largest party, Modi said that the NDA had requested Governor not to invite RJD even if it staked claim to form the Government, as the NDA with 92 MLAs, besides support of 10 independents was the obvious choice to be asked by Governor to come to form the Government first and prove the majority in the State Assembly.

Modi said that Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ramvilas Paswan with 28 MLAs, Samajwadi Party with four MLAs, besides the Bahujan Sama Party (BSP) and others were also averse to formation of Government of RJD.

''We have also mentioned in our letter to Governor that overwhelming majority of MLAs worked at little over 145 out of 243 MLAs are dead against formation of a Government of Laloo Prasad and in the given situation, it will be unconstitutional to entertain RJD's claim,'' he said.

Modi said that the Governor should also take the NDA leader into confidence before taking a decision on the issue of Government formation.