Samata to attend JD(U) rally

By K. Balchand

PATNA, SEPT. 23. The Samata Party has decided to stick to its decision to participate in the Janata Dal(U)'s Lucknow rally tomorrow, which has become a matter of controversy between the Union Telecommunication Minister, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan and the Agriculture Minister, Mr. Nitesh Kumar.

After today's meeting between the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, and Mr. Paswan, it is possible that the Minister of State for Railways, Mr. Digvijay Singh would represent the Samata Party at the rally instead of Mr. Kumar as originally intended.

The Samata Party president, Ms. Jaya Jaitly, said Mr. Kumar had taken ill and had left today's Union Cabinet midway. He would attend the rally if he recovered by then, she added. Ms. Jaitly denied that Mr. Fernandes had called on Mr. Paswan in connection with the rally. His efforts had been directed towards ironing out differences among the NDA constituents, particularly those having a major base in Bihar.

She refused to comment on the tug of war between Mr. Paswan and Mr. Sharad Yadav calling it an ``internal matter'' of the JD(U).

Ruling out the possibility of President's rule being imposed in West Bengal or declaring parts of the State as `disturbed' as demanded by the Railways Minister, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, she said such an action was not feasible as the NDA lacked support in the Rajya Sabha. The NDA would take collective decision on the issue, she added.

On the reported speech of the Bihar unit president, Mr. Raghunath Jha's speech that the Samata Party would break relations with the BJP if the Muslims extended their support to the party, Ms. Jaitly said the statement had been twisted out of context. She stressed that her party did not treat any caste or religion as a vote bank.

``Rather the BJP has changed its strategy while promulgating the NDA's agenda and is now wooing the Muslims as well,'' she said.

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