Dal Set To Split, Laloo Camp Seeks State-Level Support

Loyalists of Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav yesterday established fervent contacts with leaders in state units to enlist support in the post-split situation as all efforts for a compromise and a resolution of the crisis in the Janata Dal appeared to prove futile.

A meeting of the Janata Dal legislature party in Patna decided to boycott the July 3 party election, and reposed faith in the leadership of Laloo Yadav.

Laloo Yadav hopes to secure the support of the anti-Deve Gowda faction in the Karnataka unit. Sources close to him said he had already been assured support by expelled Janata Dal leader Ramakrishna Hegde, who has supporters in the state Janata Dal, and is waiting in the wings to embarrass Gowda.

A meeting was held in Bangalore yesterday evening to determine the support base for Laloo Yadav. He is said to enjoy the backing of an MP from the state. But sources said matters in the Karnataka unit would be clearer only after the position of Gowda and his supporters is known after the July 3 election to the party presidentship.

Laloo Yadav is irrelevant in Karnataka. But he could win support if the anti-Gowda faction enforces a split in the state unit, a senior party leader said.

Prime Minister I K Gujral has turned down a request by senior leaders like S Jaipal Reddy and S R Bommai to intervene decisively in the crisis. He is said to have told them that he would not like to be rebuffed by either faction if he were to intervene. He could consider taking the initiative only if both factions approach him, but clearly such a possibility is remote in the given situation.

Reddy spoke to Laloo Yadav on the phone for 45 minutes yesterday, after which the former is said to have been further dismayed due to the inevitability of a split. A senior leader remarked that clearly those in the party who want to hound Laloo Yadav out of the party are prevailing over those who want him to quit as Chief Minister, but remain within the Janata Dal.

The meeting of the legislature party in Patna was attended by 145 of the 168 MLAs with the dissidents boycotting it. Spokesman Vijay Krishna said the meeting expressed concern over what it termed as the forged voters list for the July 3 election. It is difficult to participate in such an election conducted on the basis of a forged voters list, he said.

We will not like to be a party to a farce which will reduce the Janata Dal to a pocket organisation, he said. Laloo Yadav urged members of the partys national council to boycott the election as well.

The meeting authorised Yadav to decide the future course of action and expressed unflinching loyalty in his leadership. Krishna said the meeting welcomed Gujrals peace move.

We do not want to split the party. It is they (Sharad Yadav camp) who want the party to break, he said.

Meanwhile, all arrangements are being made for the poll in which over 1,000 delegates to the national council are entitled to vote.