Jd Wants Sonia As Pm

The six MP-strong Janata Dal has decided not to support the candidature of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for the post of Prime Minister incase the BJP-led government fell. It would prefer Congress president Sonia Gandhi for the post.

In fact, the Janata Dal said it would caution the Congress against including constituents of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha comprising the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Laloo Prasad Yadav in the proposed ministry.

Cautioning the Congress, senior Janata Dal leader Ram Vilas Paswan said: "Laloo Prasad Yadav will stoop to any level like the AIADMK leader Jayalalitha to save his skin in the fodder scam". He said the new Morcha represented casteist and corrupt forces. Paswan also charged the RJD with having "tacit" understanding with the BJP to save the Rabri Devi government in Bihar.

Meanwhile, the Janata Dal spurned the Morcha's invitation to all parties, except the BJP and the Samata Party, to attend Sunday's meeting against the Shiv Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra on the Srikrishna panel report. Party spokesman Mohan Prakash said the Janata Dal had taken strong exception to the police firing on party workers in Bihar where the RJD is in power.

"Our agitation was against the Manohar Joshi government's rejection of the Srikrishna Commission report. But at the instance of the Rabri Devi government, the local administration opened fire on processionists. So how can we go along with the Morcha," he said.

Apart from the subject of the Srikrishna Commission report, the meeting is also intended to bring all "secular parties" on a common platform as part of its broader agenda to topple the Vajpayee government.

He said an all-party bandh has been called on August 18 in 23 north Bihar districts where dharnas would be held at block and district level the previous day.