Patna, May 24: It was the worst kind of recess the legislators who never got to enter the Assembly had. Now, they are vowing to go in for a decisive session before fresh elections are held, in all likelihood some time between September and November.

Not just the MLAs, their leaders, too, are slowly trooping into the state after a drama whose main acts were played outside the boundaries of Bihar.

Round 1 of the fireworks starts tomorrow when the focus of attention ? Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party as well those who revolted against him ? are likely to announce their course of action.

Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar is also expected to be back tomorrow and so is BJP vice-president Sushil Kumar Modi to attend a meeting of the former legislators. Munna Shukla, understood to be a key player in triggering and managing the LJP revolt, has emerged as the leader of the new group. Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav returned home yesterday.

The statewide bandh, meanwhile, called by the National Democratic Alliance evoked mixed response across the state though no untoward incident was reported. In a surprise quasi-political statement, the government said the general strike was “totally ineffective” and the description was attributed to new home secretary A.K. Biswas. Hundreds of bandh supporters were taken into custody and later released.

The sudden dissolution of the Assembly seems to have cemented the ties of the BJP and the Dal(U) like never before and the NDA is portraying the “fight” against Governor Buta Singh’s “unconstitutional” dissolution of the Assembly as a united effort.

But a Dal(U) leader said if the LJP rebels hanker to join the ranks of the party, ticket distribution will become a tough task. “It will be difficult to deny a ticket to a candidate who romped home last time. But the fact is that someone from the NDA was pitted against the person concerned. The reconciliation would take a lot of time,” he added.

The rebel LJP leaders, seven of whom have been expelled by Paswan, have already begun attacking the Union minister, alleging that he played into Laloo Prasad’s hands. They would decide tomorrow whether to float a new party or merge with some anti-RJD party.

Senior rebel leader Narendra Singh said his expulsion violated the party constitution because no show-cause was served and indicated that they might now decide to expel Paswan himself from the LJP.

Governor Buta Singh, whose report(s) to the Centre led to the dissolution of the House, meanwhile, continued to defend his action today and said here that he had information about some legislators being kept in “illegal confinement” as “hostages” in Jharkhand and “money and muscle power” were being put to use by a political group.

But Munna Shukla said only the MLAs concerned ? and no one else ? could have attested to Singh’s charge of “illegal confinement”. “We were in Jharkhand to explore the possibilities of government formation and the governor was not expected to presume things on his own,” he added.

Modi said he expected the battle to be “bipolar” in Bihar with the LJP being out of the contest because of Paswan’s “misguided actions”. “If anything, the NDA will emerge as a stronger force,” he added.