Tuesday, March 8 2005 09:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Bihar was brought under President's rule last night (Mar 7, 2005) eight days after elections had thrown up a hung Assembly in which Government formation was not possible.

Two Union Ministers Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, whose bitter rivalry ensured the deadlock in Ministry formation, kept away from a meeting of the Union Cabinet that decided on a spell of President's rule as recommended by Governor Buta Singh.

Late last evening, President A P J Abdul Kalam gave his seal of approval to the Cabinet's decision about Central rule as also to keep the newly-elected Bihar Assembly under suspended animation.

The Union Cabinet considered Governor Buta Singh's recommendation that no party was in a position to form a Government and there was no option but to impose President's rule.

Paswan, Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief, came in for criticism from almost the entire political spectrum ranging from opposition Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-Janata Dal-United (JD-U) to Left parties and arch detractor Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) for imposition of President's rule in Bihar but Congress said it was due to the nature of the electoral mandate.

The Cabinet's decision to impose President's rule in the State brings the curtains down on the virtually uninterrupted 15-year reign of Laloo-Rabri in Bihar.

After Laloo won the Assembly polls in 1990 there were only two brief occasions when the State power slipped out of his party's hands-once in 1995 when Nitish Kumar was sworn in Chief Minister but had to bow out when he could not prove majority and the other time a few years ago President's rule was imposed citing bad law and order situation but could not be sustained because the proclamation could not be passed in Parliament during National Democratic Alliance (NDA's) tenure.

"The Cabinet has decided to recommend to the President that President's rule be imposed in Bihar and the Legislative Assembly be put in suspended animation," Home Minister Shivraj Patil said after the 40-minute meeting of the Cabinet.

The decision to impose Central rule came after Laloo Prasad Yadav, the RJD supremo, had a series of meetings with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Patil and Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) leader H S Surjeet.

The Home Minister had on Sunday (Mar 6, 2005) discussed the Bihar Governor's report with the Prime Minister, Sonia and her political secretary Ahmed Patel for an hour.

The Governor in his report had recommended clamping of President's rule as neither RJD and its pre-poll allies nor NDA had come forward with the support of 122 MLAs required for majority in the 243-member Assembly.

Before leaving for Patna last evening, Laloo told reporters, "I am not going to the Cabinet meeting as my party has been opposed to President's rule in the State, especially after the people have given their verdict and RJD has emerged as the single-largest party".