New Delhi, May 23: Indian President Abdul Kalam dissolved the Bihar state assembly on Monday after the February-March elections failed to throw up a viable government, an official announcement said. The politically volatile state, which has a strong bearing on the survival of India’s ruling UPA coalition, will now go for fresh elections within six months.

The disssolution move appeared to thwart efforts by the Bharatiya Janata Party and it NDA allies to form a government by engineering defections. A great deal of drama surrounded the decision by the federal cabinet, which held a midnight meeting on Sunday to consider Governor Buta Singh’s recommendation to dissolve the 243-member assembly.

Endorsing the governor’s report, the cabinet recommended to President Kalam, away in Moscow, that the assembly be dissolved. The recommendation was faxed to the president and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also spoke to him.

NDA partners have denounced the Dissolution, but Congress and Bihar leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose family lost power in Bihar earlier this year after 15 years, welcomed the move.