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Rabri Devi steps in to stormy reception

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

The National Democratic Alliance is back to its favourite role of opposition in the Bihar assembly.

When the assembly met today for a two-day session to decide the fate of the Rabri Devi government, deteriorating law-and-order was again the NDA's pet topic, though they conveniently forgot that the incident they highlighted took place during the eight-day-long Nitish Kumar government.

The uproarious scenes caused by the death of nine Bihar Mounted Police personnel in a landmine blast and the subsequent protest by BMP and Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Garhwa district forced Speaker Sadanand Singh to adjourn the House till lunch. When the House met after, NDA members staged a walkout to protest against the presentation of a vote-on-account by the government.

The trouble began moments after the House met, with NDA member Ramchandra Kesri moving an adjournment motion over the Garhwa incident. The Opposition wanted the issue discussed before the vote-on-account was presented.

Amidst noisy scenes, Leader of the Opposition Sushil Kumar Modi was heard remarking that when the Nitish Kumar government was in power Left extremists were killed, but under Rabri Devi's rule, police personnel were being killed.

As Modi's statement was wrong, members of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal protested. The landmine blast took place in the afternoon of March 11, when Nitish Kumar was the chief minister. Rabri Devi took oath at 1700 IST that day. Similarly, 11 People's War Group men were killed early on March 3, while Nitish Kumar took oath in the evening that day.

In the post-lunch session, the NDA legislators staged a walkout in protest against the presentation of a vote-on-account for four months. They said the Rabri Devi government was not authorised to present a vote-on-account before winning the confidence vote in the assembly. Ironically, the minority Nitish Kumar government last week had presented the Budget for 2000-01 before even tabling the confidence motion.

Today's proceedings in the House revealed the combative mood of the NDA, despite having been defeated in the House last week. The two-hour debate on the confidence motion scheduled for tomorrow morning is likely to be a stormy one.

While the six-member Communist Party of India, Marxist-Leninist, has decided to abstain from voting, the CPI legislature party is yet to take a final decision on the matter. If the CPI-ML abstains, Rabri Devi will need 159 MLAs to win. She has already claimed the support of 162 members, with the promise of support from a couple of independent MLAs too. The picture, however, will be clearer tomorrow.

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