Laloo Plans New Party, Jd Leaders Bid To Prevent Split

Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav is understood to have sounded out his supporters on the formation of a new party after formally splitting with the Janata Dal in the near future. Senior party leader Srikanta Jena yesterday said efforts were on to prevent a split, but there were indications that there was little headway towards this end.

Even as Yadav spoke to Prime Minister I K Gujral late Monday night, the legal tussle between the two candidates for party presidentship Laloo Yadav and Sharad Yadav continued yesterday with the former challenging the Delhi High Courts order setting June 18 as the date of election. The arguments in the case are to continue today.

 

A Dal MP close to Laloo Yadav disclosed that an exercise was on to assess Laloos actual support strength as part of the beleaguered leaders contingency plans to launch a new party. Such an eventuality would have a significant bearing on the United Front government, as several Janata Dal ministers owe allegiance to Laloo Yadav.

The inevitability of a parting of ways was reflected in the reported statement of former party president V P Singh that a split in the party was a mere formality now. Leaders like Jena, Madhu Dandavate and S Jaipal Reddy engaged in efforts to avert a split, were clearly dismayed by Singhs statement.

Gujral is said to have turned down the party presidentship as a consensus candidate, and now efforts were on to persuade Dandavate to take over the leadership in order to avoid a split.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has also conveyed his concurrence to a third person as a consensus candidate. According to Jena, a communication gap in the party had led to the current impasse. As a way out, there is also a suggestion that Sharad Yadav be made a high-profile Cabinet minister in the event of his being cleared in the hawala case. The case is expected to come up for hearing later this week. The deal is that he drops out of the presidential race in return for the ministership. Singh appears to have given up on the Janata Dal, a general secretary told Business Standard yesterday. He said Singhs known skills in managing contradictions were sorely missed at this juncture, but added that the fear of losing power would prompt known anti-Laloo Yadav leaders like Ram Vilas Paswan to adopt a conciliatory posture.

Singh has declared his intention to stay away from politics until 1999 on health grounds. He is currently undergoing kidney treatment in London, but Janata Dal sources admitted that he continues to be in close touch with matters politic.

Singh, one of the architects of the Janata Dal and coalition experiments at the Centre, is reported to have stated: The Janata Dal has almost split. It is now only a question of formality. It cannot be helped after all this infighting. What was more important than an individual or a party is the survival of coalition governments, a process that began in 1977, he said.

Arguments in the Delhi High court between Laloo Yadav and returning officer P K Samantray were yesterday adjourned for today. Yadavs counsel, Rajesh Dwivedi, seeking stay on the order of Justice S N Kapoor, who appointed Justice M C Kochar to conduct and supervise the June 18 poll, told the court that the root cause of the dispute was the party presidents May 29 order, fixing the venue of elections at Patna.

Dwivedi appealed to the courts not to intervene in the internal matter of a political party as it would result in carrying so much of bad blood. The bad blood has gone to such an extent that in this situation the courts cannot check a political fallout. Counsel for Samantray, R K Anand told the court that the courts should not intervene once a election process has started and all appeals could be heard after the election process was over as per the provisions of the party constitution.