Gowda Forces Dal To Announce Party Poll Schedule

Former PM scores another point as Paswan confidante given party symbol for east Delhi polls

Janata Dal president Laloo Prasads arch rival, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, yesterday forced his party to announce an election schedule for choosing the party president. Without waiting for Prime Minister I K Gujral to return from his Male trip late today, June 10 was fixed for the election, five days before the deadline set by the Election Commission for completing the organisational elections.

Gowdas thrust comes just as Laloo Prasad prepares to pressure his party to allow him to continue as party president if it wants him to quit the Bihar Chief Ministers post in the wake of the CBI seeking Governor A R Kidwais sanction to charge him. Gowda, however, is determined to take Laloos place in the party.

Dal sources say Gowda is enthused by the successful election of his nominee, B L Shanker, MP, as the president of the Karnataka unit of the Janata Dal and has decided to visit the state on May 19. This will be his first visit to the state after he was ousted from prime ministership last month.

The second determined effort of the dissidents also yielded good results for the Gowda faction, when working president Sharad Yadav was pressured to allot the party symbol to Kesri Singh Gujjar to contest from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.

Prime Minister I K Gujral had promised Congress President Sitaram Kesri that the Dal would support Congress nominee A K Walia. Gujjar is an office-bearer of the Dalit Sena, which owes allegiance to railway minister Ram Vilas Paswan. Paswan is a close confidante of Gowda.

Dal sources said Paswan and Gowdas man Friday C M Ibrahim came to Sharad Yadav on Monday morning to demand that the party symbol should be allotted to Gujjar. Dals decision to contest has embarrassed Gujral to a great extent. The Prime Minister is already under pressure to sort out the issue relating to the demand for resignation of Laloo Prasad.

A senior Dal leader expressed the confidence yesterday that our party candidate will withdraw from the east Delhi contest. The Prime Minister has conveyed this message to Gujjar and other Dal leaders that the candidate should withdraw from the race.

Those close to Gowda however insist that Gujjar will remain in the fray. Asked why party president Sharad Yadav allotted the election symbol to Gujjar, the leader said that since the time for filing of nomination was coming to a close and Gujral was abroad, Sharad decided to give the go-ahead as the withdrawal option was open to the party. It may be easy for the party to cross this hurdle, but the Prime Minister will have to confront the Laloo Prasad issue soon to avoid a possible disaster, said a party leader.

Talks with a cross section of party leaders and Members of Parliament reveal that except for the Gowda faction, the rest of the Dal is all for the Prime Minister taking decisive steps to resolve the inner-party crisis. The only solution that seems emerging is to allow Laloo Prasad to continue as party president, and make him resign as Chief Minister. In spite of the new-found confidence of Gowda, most in the party do not feel he has any chance of becoming party president.

No senior leader of the Dal has defended Lalooji. Dont you think this will send a strong message to the Bihar Chief Minister, a senior leader asked. He added that statement like Laloo wont resign were based on gross underestimation of Prasads political intelligence. Besides, a defiant stand by Laloo Prasad was politically unsustainable in the present situation.