The Hindu : National : Paswan urges Buta Singh not to invite RJD

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Friday, Mar 04, 2005

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National

Paswan urges Buta Singh not to invite RJD

By Our Special Correspondent

MAKING HIS CASE: The Lok Jan Shakti Party chief and Union Minister, Ram Vilas Paswan, coming out of the Raj Bhavan in Patna along with his party leaders after submitting a memorandum to the Governor on Thursday. — Photo: Ranjeet Kumar

PATNA, MARCH 3 . The Lok Jan Shakti Party chief, Ram Vilas Paswan, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) general secretary, Deepankar Bhattacharya, today called on the Bihar Governor, Buta Singh, for the second time since the government-formation moves began.

The two leaders have requested Mr. Singh not to invite the Rashtriya Janata Dal or the National Democratic Alliance to form the government. They have stressed that they would vote against these two formations should either of them form a government without the required numbers. In the 243-member-strong House, the LJP has 29 legislators and the CPI-ML seven. They told the Governor that the RJD did not have the required numbers as claimed by its chief, Lalu Prasad, and that the majority of the legislators were opposed to any government led by the outgoing Chief Minister, Rabri Devi.

Buta Singh's assurance

Mr. Singh assured them that he would abide by the Constitution while taking any decision, they said. According to Mr. Paswan, the Governor assured security to all independent legislators being threatened by criminals.

Mr. Bhattacharya said installing a minority government would amount to defeating the mandate which was against the ruling RJD-led Government despite the fact that the verdict was a fractured one.

He had talks with Mr. Paswan and assured him support in the formation of a third front provided he did not seek the BJP's support. He also requested Mr. Paswan to resign as the Union Steel Minister for political consistency.

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