The Congress was in turmoil since Wednesday morning. Although Congress Legislature Party leader Ramashraya Prasad Singh claimed that the central leadership had asked the state unit to abstain from voting, six Congress MLAs close to Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Laloo Prasad Yadav said they were keen to vote in favour of the state government.

``We will do what we think is best, we are our own high command,'' said Congress MLA Deo Nath Yadav.

However, Laloo in a meeting with Singh, appealed to the Congress MLAs not to ``split'' their party. The six MLAs, as a result, stayed away from the House.

Making it easier for the RJD government were the dissenters in the Samata Party, four of whom broke away today just before the confidence debate. Though this was on the cards for a while, what came as a surprisewas the formation of a new party -- the Samata Party (Patel) -- by the dissidents.

Lovely Anand, one of the four and wife of Lok Sabha MP Anand Mohan Singh, voted against the Rabri Devi government while the others, Shivanand Tiwary, Brishen Patel and Parbati Devi supported the RJD government.

At 10.30 am, the four MLAs met Speaker Dev Narayan Yadav and said they were forming their own party. After verifying their signatures, the Speaker issued a communique accepting their claim and announced the formation of the new party. (The Samata had eight MLAs in the House).

A curious situation arose when Patel told the House that his group would support the Rabri government and Lovely Anand intervened to say that she was with the group ``purely for technical reasons'' and that she wanted Rabri Devi to resign for her ``failure and misrule.''

She alleged that there was ``jungle raj'' in the state and the RJD was squarely responsible for it.

``I am not going to be a party to the games of my colleagues,'' shetold The Indian Express later. ``I have my own independent line. Since we needed one-third to split, I joined them. There's nothing more than that.''

She indicated that her husband was looking at the possibility of a new alignment with Ram Vilas Paswan.

Meanwhile, Patel, justifying the split, said he had decided to quit following the BJP's ``communal'' policies and for its ``sell-out'' to the West by passing the Patents Bill.

He said Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and Defence Minister George Fernandes had ``bartered away'' the Samata's interests to the BJP by playing the Hindu card and had failed to oppose the ``atrocities against Christians and minorities.''

BJP leader Sushil Mody meanwhile justified the imposition of President's rule in the state, saying RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav was ``keeping alive the Ranabir Sena and the Naxalites for his political gains.''

The government, for its part, informed the House that ``everything was fine.'' Bihar faced no ``industrial crisis,'' it declared,nor were there ``any student agitations'' in the state.