M A I N   N E W S

NDA threatens stir in Bihar

NEW DELHI, March 30 (PTI) — The NDA will launch a state-wide agitation in Bihar if Chief Minister Rabri Devi refuse to resign in the event of being chargesheeted in the disproportionate income cases, senior Janata Dal (U) leader and Communications Minister Ram Bilas Paswan said today.

“She (Rabri Devi) will have to resign if she is chargesheeted. If she does not do that, we will launch a state-wide agitation to seek her resignation,” Mr Paswan told mediapersons here.

To a question, he said the charge sheet was expected “at the earliest ... it has to come”.

Mr Paswan, whose name figured prominently for Bihar’s chief ministership on the eve of the Assembly elections last month, said although the people did not give a clear mandate to the National Democratic Alliance, they were in favour of removing the “jungle raj” perpetrated by the ruling RJD in Bihar.

“It is only the lure of ministerial berths that has so far kept the Rabri government going,” he said, lashing out at the Congress for bailing out the RJD government.

“It may be a matter of two months or so. And that’s why the Rabri government does not enjoy the same legitimacy it enjoyed even four months back,” he remarked.

Asked what had gone wrong and created hurdles in the way of the NDA getting a majority in the Assembly poll, he said the failure to project a united NDA “gave the wrong signals.”

To a question on the Rajya Sabha poll in Bihar where Congress MLAs voted unitedly unlike in other states, Mr Paswan said this was not a setback for the NDA.

The CPI (ML) has decided to press for the resignation of the Bihar Chief Minister if she is chargesheeted.

The CPI (ML) General Secretary, Mr Dipankar Bhatacharya, said the party would launch an agitation for panchayat elections in Bihar and creation of Jharkhand.