At an hour-long formal meeting chaired by Home Minister L K Advani this evening, the Union Cabinet decided against sending back the recommendation which Narayanan had returned yesterday for reconsideration.

Sending it back would have meant a direct confrontation between the government and Rashtrapati Bhawan. For, the President would then have been constitutionally bound to accept the advice. Realising the political consequences of such a move, the government reined itself.

``We decided against pressing it further for the moment in deference to the views of the President,'' said Advani, with Defence Minister and Samata Party chief George Fernandes by his side, outside the Prime Minister's Office in South Block. Asked if it was a loss of face, he said: ``I don't think so, therehas been no setback of any kind.''

Today's formal Cabinet meeting was held after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rang up Advani from New York to say that it would be proper if the Cabinet takes an immediate decision without waiting for his arrival.

For the record, the Cabinet reiterated its original assessment that the situation in Bihar warranted the imposition of Article 356 which was ``constitutionally correct.'' Advani said a formal letter to the President would be sent later tonight or tomorrow.

The ground for a Cabinet rethink was laid at an informal meeting of ministers this morning where Akali Dal leader and Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister S S Barnala and Lok Shakti chief and Commerce Minister Ramakrishna Hegde said the Government should gracefully accept the President's views. ``From the beginning we have been against Article 356 of which our party governments have fallen victim seven times in the past, Barnala told The Indian Express.

Hegde recalled that the then United Frontgovernment had also chosen not to retender the advice for the dismissal of the Kalyan Singh government in Uttar Pradesh last year. He told the informal meeting of ministers that it would prudent for the government to accept the President's view but make a political point by reiterating that if there was any one State government which deserved to be dismissed it was the one in Bihar.

The government's decision taken without undue loss of time saved the BJP further embarrassment arising from the open defiance of the party's line from its allies, not to mention the strong reaction from the Opposition parties.

But this did not prevent BJP circles from taking comfort in their assessment that the decision to recommend dismissal of the RJD government had clearly polarised political parties for and against Laloo Yadav in Bihar.

At the three-hour informal meeting, Advani said that the Prime Minister was also in favour of the Cabinet returning the recommendation. But the allies indicated that they would like totalk to the PM themselves. A Cabinet minister said they decided to call New York when the Cabinet formally met in the evening.

Differences also arose in the Samata Party with Fernandes, while strongly defending the Centre's case for recommending the dismissal of the Bihar government, saying that it may not be proper for the government to press its case. However, another party leader and Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said the Cabinet should send back the recommendation to the President.

Adding to the BJP's woes was dissent even within its own ranks. Industry Minister Sikander Bakht is learnt to have said that returning the recommendation wasn't ``entirely advisable.'' AIADMK leader and Minister of State for Personnel M R Janarthanan boycotted the meeting. It was obvious that his party had lost interest in the Bihar issue, now that the President had returned the Cabinet advice. It realises that there would now be no takers for its demand for dismissal of the DMK government .