Friday, November 11 2005 12:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Predicting a 'clear majority' for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president L K Advani today (Nov 11, 2005) claimed that these were the 'last days' for the Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) 'rule by proxy'.

"The jungle raj in Bihar is nearing its end as the NDA will get a clear majority in the polls. These are the last days for the RJD 's rule by proxy and Congress, the principal backer of the jungle raj, is in a terrible mess because of the sin (of propping RJD regime) committed by it", Advani told reporters before leaving for campaigning.

The BJP president lashed out at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for dubbing RJD president and Railway minister Laloo Prasad as 'vikas purush' (man of development).

"A Government is known by its Prime Minister. Manmohan Singh is PM just for name's sake and the government is being run by Sonia Gandhi, Jyoti Basu and Lalu Prasad. Even the prestigious new statesman of London said he should be pitied for his present plight", he said.

Asserting that the electorate had made up its mind to install NDA's chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar in power, he asked the voters not to fritter away an opportunity to change the face of Bihar for the better.

Lauding the role of the Election Commission in ensuring that the voters exercised their franchise without fear and the pliant officers were punished, he said, "if one honest officer like EC special adviser K J Rao can bring such perceptible change, one can imagine what a sincere and hardworking Nitish Kumar can do for the state".

The BJP president also assailed AICC general secretary in-charge of Bihar Digvijay Singh for his attacks on the Election Commission. "The opposition used to mount such assaults on EC but it is for the first time that a spokesman for the party in power is attacking a constitutional body".

Stating that the Bihar elections would have far-reaching repercussions for national politics, Advani said the assembly elections in Gujarat in 1975 and Allahabad High Court order setting aside the election of Indira Gandhi cleared the decks for the installation of the first-ever non-Congress government in Delhi in 1977.

"I sincerely hope that the Bihar elections and the Supreme Court ruling holding dissolution of the assembly as unconstitutional will have a far-reaching impact on national politics", he said.

When asked to comment on the recent newspaper report that the Director General of Border Security Force had complained to the EC about Railway minister Laloo Prasad making an 'inappropriate' call to a BSF official posted at Raghopur and using 'indecent' language, Advani said the president would take appropriate action. The Chief Election Commissioner, B B Tandon, had on Wednesday said he had received the complaint from DG, BSF that had been forwarded to the president.

Laloo was alleged to have threatened the BSF official, who was not named, to get him transferred after he refused to release an RJD worker whom the force had apprehended.

Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi is contesting election from Raghopur.