BJP-Strong-Arm Tactics

of the kind from which the Congress could obtain any mileage. The tribal development minister, Karamchand Bhagat, was prompt in resigning in support of the cause of Jharkhand statehood. But by taking recourse to the unique method of resigning via a telegram neither had he to quit office nor had the chief minister to accept it. Two of his ministerial colleagues, Mangal Singh Limaye and Laxman Ram, who also resigned ostentatiously adopted an even more quaint practice. They shrewdly forwarded their letters of resignation to Karamchand Bhagat who decided not to pass them on to the chief minister. Likewise five Janata Dal members resigned from the state legislature but made it unambiguously clear that they had not really resigned.