• Polls to go on

• Manmohan meets Kalam

New Delhi, October 7:

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight met President APJ Abdul Kalam after the government received a stinging rebuke from the Supreme Court over its “unconstitutional” dissolution of the Bihar assembly in May that has necessitated fresh elections in the state. As the capital was abuzz with speculation over the repercussions of the verdict, the apex court specified that the scheduled October 18-November 19 polls would go ahead.

Manmohan Singh met Kalam just before heading for Chandigarh to attend a two-day conclave of Congress chief ministers that began today. He is likely to discuss with party President Sonia Gandhi the fallout of the court verdict. The Congress, which leads India’s ruling the coalition, contended that the judgement was anticipated and ruled out the resignation of Manmohan Singh, even as the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said he must quit.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad, whose Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is a Congress ally and had been voted out in the February Bihar assembly poll, termed the court verdict a victory, pointing out that fresh elections and not the revival of the house had been ordered.

The BJP’s allies in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar said they would capitalise on the verdict in the run-up to the four-phased assembly polls. Kalam, according to sources in Rashtrapati Bhawan, expressed his concern during a 20-minute meting this evening with Manmohan Singh, details of which were not immediately known.

The Supreme Court declared that Kalam’s May 23 proclamation dissolving the assembly was “unconstitutional” but stopped short of overturning the move by stating that the October-November elections would go ahead as scheduled. The president is bound by the advice of the cabinet, which had recommended the dissolution on the basis of two reports submitted by Bihar Governor Buta Singh.

The elections held in February this year threw up a fractured verdict with no party getting a majority. President’s rule was imposed on March 7. The house was subsequently dissolved on May 23 as no party or group staked claim to form a government.

The verdict is a major embarrassment for the United Progressive Alliance government, which recommended dissolution on the basis of two reports sent by Buta Singh on April 27 and May 21.

These two reports, which were made public, became a subject matter of the litigation in a batch of petitions ques-tioning the legality of the Kalam’s proclamation dissolving the house.

Home Minister Shivraj Patil said he would comment on the verdict after getting it legally examined — but that the government would abide by the ruling. “It’s too early to say,” he said.