Even as the BJP is trying to save face following President K R Narayanan's rejection of the Cabinet's recommendation to impose Article 356 in Bihar, it now has to come to terms with the possibility of a change in the power equations within the alliance.

Several partners who were opposed to the imposition of Article 356 made it clear to the government today that they would not be steamrollered over the Bihar dismissal issue. The chapter may have ended for now but its repercussions will be felt as hitherto quiescent allies become more aggressive.

The recalcitrant attitude of coalition partners was one of the three reasons for the Cabinet's backdown tonight. The other two were the near-impossible task of getting the ordinance ratified by Parliament (particularly the Rajya Sabha where the coalition is in aminority) and the President's obvious opposition to the move.

Having hailed Narayanan as a custodian of democracy last year when he returned the United Front government's recommendation to dismiss the BJP's Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh, it was clearly difficult for the Vajpayee government to go against his wishes this time around.

The BJP is now engaged in a damage-limitation exercise, trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

``We are in a heads we win, tails we win situation,'' claimed a BJP leader. One of the major gains from the episode, he said, is that it will get the AIADMK off the BJP's back as it would be clear to J Jayalalitha that if the government could not push through the dismissal of the Bihar government, Tamil Nadu would be impossible.

The party's strategy is to convince the people that the BJP-led government had tried to strike a blow against criminalisation of politics but was prevented from doing so by the President. It also hopes to make political gains inBihar by telling the people that it wanted to remove the RJD government but the President came in the way.

Putting up a brave front, leaders claimed that perhaps it was all for the best as there were too many contenders for power both in the BJP and Samata Party in Bihar.

If attempts had been made to form an alternative government, the alliance would have been in jeopardy, they said.

Home Minister L K Advani's statement that the Cabinet had decided to drop the matter ``for the moment'' is seen as an attempt both to pacify the Bihar units of the BJP and Samata Party and send a signal that the government still stands by its contention that Bihar is a fit case for Article 356.

By this afternoon -- after the informal meeting of Cabinet ministers -- the BJP was sending out signals that its government would not engage in a confrontation with the President. BJP vice-president K L Sharma said several times in the course of the party briefing that the government would respectfully consider the President'ssuggestion to reconsider and that Narayanan was fulfilling his constitutional duties.

During the Kalyan Singh dismissal episode, the Bharatiya Janata Party had demanded that the then Governor, Romesh Bhandari, be recalled. Asked if it would be appropriate to recall Bihar Governor S S Bhandari (since his recommendation for imposition of Article 356 has been rejected by the President), Sharma ruled this out saying that it was only ``a difference of opinions and assessments''.