Jharkhand adds to NDA's woes

By K. Balchand

PATNA, MAY 1. The NDA constituents are at the cross-roads once again with their dream of wresting power in the State shattered and without an immediate goal to pursue. The creation of the separate Jharkhand State might only fuel their problems with nothing in common to bind them.

The heterogeneous groups are finding it difficult to pull together. The creation of Jharkhand threatens to prove problematic in the wake of varied interests not only in the proposed State but also in Bihar and the Centre might not go untouched by the reverberations.

If the central leadership fails to sort out the difficulties, none of the constituents might emerge unscathed in the tug of war. The BJP might be the biggest loser if the new State comes into being.

It is finding itself cornered with the formation of a steering committee of the NDA at the State level. It is only in Bihar that the constituents have formally grouped themselves into an alliance on the Delhi pattern.

The BJP leaders, without much thought agreed to the suggestion of the constitution of a steering committee under the leadership of the former Union Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar. They realised their folly immediately, though. The BJP leaders did not take much interest in the bandh call given to demand the resignation of the Chief Minister, Mrs. Rabri Devi, following the chargesheet against her in the disproportionate assets case.

As things stand, the BJP does not intend giving much importance to the rally that the NDA plans to hold on June 5 to press for the Chief Minister's resignation. None of the Central Ministers belonging to the BJP is likely to participate. The BJP certainly is distancing itself from Mr. Kumar if not the Samata Party and the JD(U), two other constituents. The JMM is a new entrant and most of the JD(U) leaders are showing little interest as of now.

The rally will throw light on the course of action the constituents are likely to take. That is so because the Samata Party all of a sudden has started demanding a slash in the prices of fertilizers.

Mr. Kumar has been feeling the pinch ever since Mr. Vajpayee deferred his decision to expand his Cabinet and sought to wash its hands of the failed move to wrest power by hook or by crook. The party has also been chalking out its own programmes as at Purnea to protest the killing of the criminal, Butan Singh, who was the party's district chief.

These three parties have been working hard to keep the DNA going. The byelections to the Rajya Sabha and the Legislative Council exposed the weaknesses. The biennial elections tot he Legislative Council on May 4 will be yet another test for the NDA, thanks to the JD(U) and the RJD rebels.

The JD(U) is a rudderless body torn between the two Union Ministers, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan and Mr. Sharad Yadav. Similarly, the Samata Party too is a divided house. The rebel JD(U) candidate is hoping to secure the votes the dissidents from the two parties.

Even if the NDA leadership works out things and keeps the problem under the carpet, the move to create Jharkhand would have its own impact. The BJP's stock in the State would diminish once sough Bihar is separated. That is precisely why the Samata Party may well be setting an agenda for itself.

According to sources, Mr. Paswan too is trying to float a new party with the help of some of the dissidents in the Samata Party. These two leaders are making a desperate bid to provide an alternative to the RJD in what hitherto is known as central and north Bihar.

While the BJP will be left with 35 MLAs in parent Bihar, the Samata Party and the ND(U) together will have around 50 MLAs. The ratio shows the political equation in the gangetic plains. Mr. Kumar is said to have met the former Prime Minister, Mr. Chandra Shekhar, who also called on the RJD president, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav. This equation also gives rrom for Mr. Yadav to work on the JD(U) and Samta to further strengthen his position.

But it is the BJP which will be the primary loser. It would have 32 MLAs in the proposed new State and would require 10 more MLAs to form a government. The JMM has already staked its claim. And in Bihar it would ill-afford to leave the Samata to chart its own course of action as it would certainly have its impact on the Centre. The BJP leaders here are hoping that the Prime Minister would soon accommodate these two leaders so that they could get gain some relevance in Bihar and in the new State as well.

Laloo plea not taken up

UNI reports:

The hearing of the bail petition filed by Mr. Laloo Yadav, now lodged in the Beur model jail, was not taken up by Patna High Court today. Mr. Justice Nagendra Rai, said he would only take up the matter after a directive from the Chief Justice Mr. R. S. Dhawan.

Earlier, Mr. Justice Shashank Kumar Singh heard the submissions of the counsel of both the CBI and Mr. Yadav for three days.

The former Chief Minister was lodged in jail on April 5 while Mrs. Rabri Devi, co-accused in the case, had been granted bail by the designated CBI court.

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