Govt’s last bid on Bihar – Vajpayee may meet Sonia

NEW DELHI, MARCH 6: Even though the Central Government has more or less reconciled itself to revoking the President's rule in Bihar, it w...

NEW DELHI, MARCH 6: Even though the Central Government has more or less reconciled itself to revoking the President’s rule in Bihar, it was – till late tonight – toying with the idea of arranging Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s "one-to-one" meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi. The move, which has reportedly been okayed by both Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani, will be the "last-ditch effort to let a recalcitrant Congress see reason", according to sources in the North Block. However, utmost care is being taken by the Government to ensure that the move does not backfire. One argument making the rounds is that even if Sonia does not oblige Vajpayee – as it is, the odds are already stacked against him – her party would stand to lose in terms of negative publicity generated thereafter. It was keeping this in mind that Vajpayee today made an unusually strong plea in Patna when he asked the Congress to reconsider its decision on Bihar.

"Even now," the Prime Minister held in a pressstatement issued at the end of his day-long Bihar visit, "it is not too late for the Congress to see reason and decide to support the imposition of President’s rule in Bihar. I appeal to the Congress leadership to rise above misconceived self-interest and be on the side of democracy, constitutional propriety and social justice."

Back in New Delhi, senior Congress leader Arjun Singh rejected the PM’s plea – but not categorically enough. "I do not think that there is any sign of the Congress rethinking on its decision (to oppose the President’s rule in Bihar in the Rajya Sabha)," Singh said.

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Though the Government will inform Parliament by early next week its exact strategy on Bihar, the final decision on the matter will be taken by Monday morning. Therefore, the Congress president will be contacted – unless there is a last-minute rethinking within the Government – before that, it is learnt.

A mood of pessimism on Bihar has already set in the Government, mainly on account of some of its allies themselvesstressing for revoking the President’s rule. Not many are actually expecting a sudden change of heart from Sonia Gandhi; they point out how Vajpayee was caught on the wrong foot when he spoke with Sonia Gandhi on telephone from abroad before telling the Union Cabinet to go ahead with the second recommendation to President K R Narayanan for the dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government.

In Bangalore, BJP general secretary Venkaiah Naidu today held that clamping the President’s rule in Bihar was only a stop-gap arrangement and his Government was keen to hold elections there at the earliest. Like Vajpayee, he too exhorted the Congress to reconsider its stand.

The President’s rule in Bihar, Naidu said, was a political surgery necessary to prevent the jungle raj there.

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But not everybody in the Government is as upbeat as Naidu. Several other party leaders – including Vajpayee – have taken the stand that if nothing else, the ratification of President’s rule in the Lok Sabha had givenenough "political legitimacy" to the BJP-led Government to compensate for any loss of face in Rajya Sabha.