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Fifth time President's rule has been imposed in two or more states

Anant Gaundalkar

President K R Narayanan, who in September had refused to impose President's rule in Bihar, has now, within three days, ordered President's rule in Bihar and Goa.

This is the fifth time President's rule has been imposed in two or more states in the same month.

February 1980 witnessed as many as six states -- Gujarat, Bihar, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu - being simultaneously placed under President's rule. Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was at the helm of affairs then.

In December 1992 four states -- Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh -- were put under President's rule by President S D Sharma. All these states had Bharatiya Janata Party governments.

Following are complete details of instances when President's rule was imposed in two or more states in the same month, arranged in chronological order:

Month and year	Affected states (CM-party)
December, 1979	Assam (J N Hazarika - Congress), Kerala (Mohammad Koya - Muslim League)
February, 1980	Gujarat (Babubhai Patel - INC-O), Bihar (Ram Sunder Das - Janata Party), Maharashtra (Sharad Pawar - PDF), Punjab (Prakash Singh Badal - SAD), Rajasthan (B R Shekhawat - Janata Party) and Tamil Nadu (M G Ramchandran - AIADMK).
March, 1982	Assam (K C Gogla - Congress) and Kerala (K Karunakaran - Congress)
December, 1992	Himachal Pradesh (Shanta Kumar - BJP), Madhya Pradesh (Sunderlal Patwa - BJP), Rajasthan (Bhairon Singh Shekhawat - BJP) and Uttar Pradesh (Kalyan Singh - BJP)
February, 1999	Goa (Luizinho Faleiro - Congress) and Bihar (Rabri Devi - RJD)

Key: INC-O: Indian National Congress (Organised)
PDF - Progressive Democratic Front.
SAD - Shiromani Akali Dal.
AIADMK - All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhgam.
BJP - Bharatiya Janata Party.
RJD - Rashtriya Janata Dal.

In the first three instances, N S Reddy was the president; in the fourth, Dr S D Sharma; and now, K R Narayanan.

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