Laloo Demands Party Chiefs Post To Prevent Split

During Laloo Prasad Yadavs recent visit to Delhi, he is said to have boldly told senior Janata Dal leaders that there can be only one compromise formula to prevent a split: ensure his re-election as party president by getting Sharad Yadav to withdraw from the election.

A senior Janata Dal leader involved in compromise efforts yesterday quoted Yadav as saying: If you want to prevent a split, make me the president.

If need be, Sharad Yadav could be made a high-profile minister, he is said to have told the mediators.

Laloo Yadav returned to Patna yesterday, and stated that he was hopeful that a consensus would be evolved by the senior leaders before June 18.

 

He told newsmen that neither he nor Sharad Yadav wanted a split in the party. He refused to comment on the raids conducted by the CBI at the residences of some bureaucrats in the fodder scam case.

With Laloo Yadav returning to Patna, there was not much activity within the Janata Dal yesterday in the Capital, with Sharad Yadav reiterating his known position. Prime Minister I K Gujral called for maintaining unity in the party currently passing through a difficult phase.

On a visit to Bangalore, he appealed to Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel and other leaders to help preserve the partys unity.

He recalled that the first conference of the Janata Dal was held in Bangalore, and as such party leaders from Karnataka had more responsibility in ensuring unity in the party.

Meanwhile, arguments before the Delhi High Court on the dispute between Laloo Yadav and party returning officer P K Samantray remained inconclusive and would continue today. Rakesh Dwivedi, counsel for Yadav, agreed to a compromise formula to leave the dispute to be decided by the party national executive.

However, he did not give an undertaking in this regard as the court refused to empower Yadav to convene a meeting of the national executive.

Dwivedi said if the court did not pass a restraint order against his client, Laloo Prasad Yadav will place all material before the national executive and let the body decide about the manner in which the elections should be conducted, the appointment of returning officers and the venue. He said Laloo Yadav was ready even to forego his decision to hold the poll at Patna if he was allowed to convene the national executive for placing all the material indicating alleged irregularities committed by Samantray and his deputy B K Prasad in the voters list.