The Times of India News Service

NEW DELHI: After the reinstallation of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) government in Bihar, the Congress would offer it conditional and issue-based support.

Stating this here on Monday, Congress spokesman Ajit Jogi said the party's unit in Bihar will not spare the RJD government if it did not check atrocities on dalits and other deprived sections.

In response to a question if the Congress still stood by its earlier stand that the Rabri Devi government had lost moral authority to rule after the killings of Dalits, Mr Jogi said, ``Yes, we do. Not only Bihar government but any government which could not ensure protection of the weaker and disadvantaged sections has no moral right to govern''.

While officially the Congress maintained that it was for the RJD legislators to choose their leader, unofficially the party is expected to try and put pressure on RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav to find a replacement of Mrs Rabri Devi as chief minister of the state.

Individual party leaders such as working committee member Tariq Anwar and deputy leader in the Lok Sabha P.Shiv Shankar have expressed the view that Mrs Rabri Devi should not be reinstalled. They would prefer a dalit or a member of a minority community to head the state government.

In any case, in order to counter the BJP's campaign that the Congress was not bothered for the plight of dalits, the Congress leadership has asked the Bihar Congress to launch agitational programmes against both the BJP as well as the RJD.

``The party line is,'' said a Bihar Congress functionary preferrred not to be named, ``that while we will try to expose the BJP's communal idealogy, we will not spare the RJD government for corruption and lack of development in the state''.

Commenting on the government's decision to revoke the President's rule in the state, Mr Jogi said after having brought the issue before Parliament, the government should have presented the resolution in the Rajya Sabha as well''.