People's Front must reconsider policy: Laloo

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JUNE 25. Questioning the equi-distant policy of the recently-formed People's Front (PF), the Rashtriya Janata Dal president, Mr. Laloo Prasad Yadav, today said there was need for unity among the opposition parties to dislodge the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA Government at the Centre.

Mr. Yadav, here to inaugurate the RJD's central office, told presspersons that the PF's policy of equi-distance, from the Congress and the BJP, suggested that the opposition was divided. It was for the Front to decide which party was ``enemy number one'' - the BJP or the Congress.

Mr. Yadav's statement was also meant as a rejoinder to the Samajwadi Party (SP) which wanted a clarification on the RJD's relations with the Congress. Appealing to the Front to consider his point of view, Mr. Yadav said he would take up the matter with the CPI(M) general secretary, Mr. Harkishan Singh Surjeet, and others. The RJD chief has kept away from the PF meetings since its formation in March though Mr. Surjeet has maintained that he had agreed to join the Front - a formation of the Left parties, the SP and the Janata Dal (Secular).

Mr. Yadav said while the PF charter stated that the new formation was aimed at building a third alternative, he did not see any future for such a combination in the national context. Unlike the Congress, the RJD or the SP did not have a major presence in States outside Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. ``How is it possible to remove the BJP and communal forces and effectively fight for the rights of the people,'' he asked.

Referring to the PF policy, he said in 1999, both the CPI(M) and the SP had agreed to support the Congress in the formation of an alternative Government but disagreed later. Though some of the Front partners had said that the RJD was soft on the Congress for supporting its Government in Bihar, his party had a majority of its own.

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