The party's national executive, which began its two-day meet here today, complained of being given short shrift in the appointment of Governors. It also demanded the immediate dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government in Bihar, saying that the state presented a fit case for the imposition of Article 356.

``We were not even consulted on the appointment of Governors,'' party spokesman Digvijay Singh told reporters after today's meeting. ``We were simply presented with a fait accompli. None of our members was considered for filling up any of the vacant slots,'' he said.

Asked if the reason behind this could be the fact that the party was not a very big constituent of the 18-party coalition, Singh retorted: ``Even Darbara Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal, which is a smaller ally, was made Governor.''

The Samata's reaction in public is anotherblow to the BJP's efforts to keep its quarrels private. Just yesterday, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee appealed to Jayalalitha and Hegde to thrash out their complaints at coordination committee meetings instead of airing them publicly.

Unfortunately, the two Samata Union Ministers, George Fernandes and Nitish Kumar, had to bow to the political compulsions of the party and allow the National Executive to put on record its criticism of the Government.

Both came under fire from their colleagues who accused them of taking a ``soft line'', particularly on the dismissal issue. Unhappy partymen pointed out that this ``soft pedalling'' would harm the party's electoral prospects in the State.

Although the national executive stopped short of issuing an ultimatum to the Centre on the dismissal of the Rabri Devi Government, it made it clear that it expected the Government to act soon. Singh pointed out that the voters of Bihar had given their mandate in favour of the alliance on the promise of imposingPresident's Rule in the state ``within 72 hours of coming to power''.

When he was reminded of the BJP's oft-repeated stand expressing its disapproval of the Article 356, Singh said that in the case of Bihar ``it will not be misuse as the RJD government is ruining the state's economy and looting its treasury''.

The party also expressed unhappiness over the decision of the BJP to name the south Bihar region, which is set to be created as a new state, as `Vananchal.' It instead preferred the name of `Jharkhand' which, the party felt, was closer to the tribal-dominated region's age-old culture.

Singh said the party would demand a package of Rs 50,000 crore for the rest of Bihar once a separate state encompassing the south Bihar districts was formed, as 70 per cent of industries and mineral resources were located in this region.