Saturday, March 5 2005 09:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: With time running out for Government formation in Bihar by March 6, Bihar yesterday (Mar 4, 2005) appeared headed towards a spell of President's Rule with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan refusing to budge from its anti-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stand.

Throwing a spanner in RJD's efforts to reach the magic figure of 122 in the 243-member State Assembly, at least six out of the 17 independent MLAs decided not to extend support to a coalition Government led by Laloo Prasad's party.

The number game at the moment did not appear to favour either RJD-Congress or BJP-Janata Dal-United (JD-U) combine without the support of 29 LJP MLAs in the 243-member State Assembly.

The LJP queered the pitch more for RJD with Paswan saying that there was not only no question of abstaining during the trial of strength in the Assembly if Rabri Devi staked claim to form Government but along with 'friendly' MLAs, his party would vote against Laloo Prasad-led party.

Paswan, who also sought to maintain equi-distance from BJP, said that during his meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi he had suggested that her party should not support RJD.

Seeking to scotch reports that he had secret parleys with senior JD-U leader Nitish Kumar, the LJP leader dismissed them as "rumours. It is just like reports that I have resigned from the Ministry or that I have made up my mind for BJP's outside support".