UF won't accommodate Laloo's RJD

The United Front core committee on Thursday night decided to jettison Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). However, the committee deferred a decision on the fate of the three RJD ministers in the I K Gujral government till July 25.

Highly placed sources said none of the UF leaders who spoke at the meeting was ready to stick his neck out on Laloo Yadav's behalf.

The UF leaders are still hopeful that Laloo Yadav, who has been chargesheeted in the Rs 9.5 billion fodder scam, would resign on his own after the Patna high court takes up the matter on July 21.

Reacting to the UF decision, RJD leader M A Fatmi said the ministers would resign. ''If they do not want us, why should we stay in the government?'' he asked.

One of the three ministers, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said, ''It is strange that they want to keep the RJD ministers in the government while throwing the party out.''

He said the ministers would decide the future course of action after consulting their leader Laloo Yadav as well as Gujral.

Significantly, Gujral lived up to his reputation of remaining silent on crucial issues. According to a senior JD leader, Gujral did not speak at all during the four-hour meeting, which was held at his residence, indicating that he only hoped that the crisis would blow over.

The meeting also felt Laloo Yadav should step down from office. The Front would not under any circumstance dilute its stand on corruption, asserted Union Information and Broadcasting Minister and UF spokesman S Jaipal Reddy.

Briefing the media after the meeting, Reddy said ''there was no dissent and the issue of keeping out the RJD was clinched through consensus''.

While a section of the Janata Dal and the Left parties took a tough stance that the UF should have no truck with the RJD as long as Laloo Yadav refused to quit as chief minister, other parties including the DMK, the TMC and the TDP reportedly said that Laloo Yadav ''should not be pushed to a corner''.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M Karunanidhi made a detailed presentation on the RJD issue while the others made submissions leading to a consensus. As the DMK endorsed the decision, Karunanidhi's threat of pulling out of the UF government is no longer valid, Reddy said.

However, a senior UF leader said the DMK is far from happy over the proceedings and it is likely to take up cudgels on Laloo Yadav's behalf soon.

Reddy made it clear that the question of imposing President's rule in Bihar was not considered at the meeting.

Among the leaders who spoke at the meeting are Telugu Desam supremo Chandrababu Naidu, Tamil Maanila Congress chief G K Moopanar, JD president Sharad Yadav, CPI-M general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan, Union Defence Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.

The meeting adopted a resolution congratulating President-elect K R Narayanan on his landslide victory in the election to the highest office.

UNI and Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

EARLIER STORY:
RJD can join govt only if Laloo quits, says Left