Bihar to come under federal rule: Report

INDIA: The governor of the lawless Indian eastern state of Bihar on Sunday recommended federal rule in the province as no political grouping could muster the required numbers to form a government in polls last month, a report said.

Governor Buta Singh, a former interior minister, decided to recommend federal rule in Bihar as no party was able to prove it had the support of 122 legislators in the 243-member state assembly, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

Bihar is an electorally pivotal state whose 80 million people send the second largest number of MPs to parliament. It is also known as India's poorest and most crime-ridden state.

The leader of the state's ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), headed by the Laloo Prasad Yadav, the wisecracking son of a cowherder, went to see governor Singh on Saturday to say his party should be asked to form the next government although it bagged only 75 seats. -- AFP