Left Appeals To Dal Factions To Join Fight Against Laloo

The Left parties have appealed to all the Left and democratic forces, including what they call progressive sections in the Janata Dal (JD), to join hands in their campaign for the ouster of Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav. The campaign began yesterday.

The Left parties have decided on agitational plans following the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) decision to prosecute the Bihar Chief Minister for his alleged involvement in the Rs 950 crore animal husbandry scam.

The Samajwadi Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) have already decided to support the agitation. CPI(ML) general secretary Vinod Mishra said that following the new development there was a need for a new social and political polarisation.

Mishra appealed to the Samata Party to part ways with the communal forces and strengthen the secular and democratic forces.

The Samajwadi Party is of the view that it will support the oust-Yadav campaign in Bihar, but it should not take up the issue at the national level so as not to embarrass its ally, the Janata Dal.

Party president and Union defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is learnt to have told Bihar unit president Rajesh Ranjan to demand Yadav's resignation once he is chargesheeted. But, he advised him not to raise the issue in Parliament.

The move to launch a stir against the Bihar Chief Minister has been taken with a view to preventing the Bharatiya Janata Party - Samata Party combine take the lead in the anti-Yadav offensive.

We cannot keep quiet if Yadav does not step down. We have to see that our demand for his ouster is fulfilled. We cannot keep quiet and let the BJP go all out against Yadav, one senior Left leader said.

State leaders of the four Left parties met on Tuesday and demanded the resignation of Yadav. They also demanded that all the bureaucrats who are involved in the case should resign.

They demanded that the Dal should elect a new leader and chalk out a concrete course of agitation. They decided that the agitation would be intensified if Yadav refuses to step down.

Meanwhile, the Janata Dal remained a divided house yesterday. While Yadav loyalists said that he should not resign even after chargesheets are filed, his detractors continued to play wait and watch game.

Yadav loyalists said that there will not be any legal problem if Yadav continues to be the Chief Minister even after being chargesheeted. The CBI will continue to investigate into the case and the agency does not work under the state government.

However, anti-Yadav camp in the Dal is pinning its hope on the day the Governor grants permission to the CBI to prosecute the Chief Minister. Let us wait till that is done. The court is also monitoring the case. Let us wait for the outcome, one Dal leader said.