``The hostility between Bhandari and RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav is no more a secret,'' said a senior BJP leader. ``Laloo had organised a yagya

against him and has even abused him in public.''

While RJD leaders claimed that Bhandari, like former UP Governor Romesh Bhandari, should step down, after his recommendation for Article 356 was dismissed by Rashtrapati Bhavan, BJP leaders said that Bhandari would take a final decision only after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee returns to the country on October 1. ``Until then, he will remain silent, '' said a BJP leader.

State BJP chief Nand Kishore Yadav, however, said there was noquestion of Bhandari leaving the state since he ``has done the job in the best possible way.''

Meanwhile, the BJP continued its offensive on the Bihar issue today with Home Minister L K Advani calling on President K R Narayanan to justify the Government's recommendation for Rabri Devi's dismissal.

Home Ministry sources said that Advani sought the half-hour meeting to ``understand the President's compulsions'' for rejecting the Cabinet's advice. He also once again put forward the Cabinet's reasons for its decision.

The BJP's aggressive stand on Bihar is threatening to bring the ruling party into unhappy confrontation with Rashtrapati Bhavan. For the third consecutive day today, BJP leaders questioned Narayanan's wisdom in returning the Centre's recommendation.

Party vice president Kailashpati Mishra warned of a ``civil war'' in Bihar because of the President's ``silence''. He urged Rashtrapati Bhavan to make public Bhandari's report on the conditions in the state.

Mishra suggested that the Presidentshould provide protection to the Governor, pointing out that the latter was being abused inside and outside the state assembly by the ruling RJD.

In Delhi, the party asked the Government to bring out a white paper on Article 356 so that a national debate on the issue could be started.

Party spokesman Venkaiah Naidu said the white paper should give details on the 108 times that the Article has been used and misused -- mainly by the Congress -- by which party, the reasons and who the victims were. He said there was a status paper on President's rule in India, published in 1996, and urged the government to update it so that people could be fully informed.

Naidu accused the Left parties of fighting shy of joining the debate on the issue, and pointed out that the Left had supported the dismissal of the BJP's Gujarat government in 1996.

The upping of the ante by the BJP on the Bihar issue is borne out of its severe embarrassment at the hands of its own allies as well as the President, all of whom questionedthe wisdom of the Centre's decision.