M A I N   N E W S

CPM-RJD pact on poll
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 19 — The Laloo Prasad Yadav-led Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which had once been an untouchable for its partners in the erstwhile United Front has now become acceptable to some of them, including its one time vehement opponent, the CPM.

At a joint press conference here today CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet announced his party’s decision to join hands with the RJD to fight elections in Bihar. Others who have decided to enter into an electoral alliance with the RJD include the Samajwadi Janata Party (SJP) and the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular).

The political compulsion of maintaining an identity in Bihar seems to have led all three parties into an alliance with the RJD. The alliance is also a result of the other players in the state — the BJP, Samata Party and the Janata Dal (United) — coming together on a common platform.

“We have decided to join hands to take up the challenge posed by the BJP and its allies and fight elections together in Bihar,” Mr Surjeet said at the press conference which was also attended by RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav, SJP leader Chandra Shekhar and Mr Deve Gowda.

Describing the Assembly polls in Bihar as very crucial, Mr Surjeet said the ground situation in the state “is very clear and the RJD is the strongest force to defeat BJP and its allies”.

“We do not find any other combination to fight communal forces,” he said.

Asked whether the new combination would also take other parties into its fold, Mr Surjeet said “we would welcome other parties to join hands”.

“But we feel there is no other force which bypassing the RJD could think of coming to power,” the CPM leader said.

Asked why the CPI had not joined the combination, Mr Surjeet said that the party had been approached but it decided not to align with the RJD. “They have their own difficulties,” he said.

To a question whether the new combination would have a common manifesto, he said that the matter was yet to be discussed.

About seat sharing modalities, he said that the parties would discuss it soon and there would not be any hitch.

To a specific question whether the CPM had dropped the issue of corruption by joining hands with the RJD, Mr Surjeet shot back, “is corruption not there in Delhi. Only BJP claims that the party is clean”.

He also brushed aside the suggestion that the CPM was joining hands with these parties as it was worried about losing its national party status saying the party did not receive any notice from the Election Commission. “We are the third largest party and head three governments,” he said.

Three Samata Party leaders suspended

NEW DELHI, Jan 19 (PTI) — Differences in the Samata Party over the issue of merger with the JD(U) came to the fore with the party leadership suspending three senior leaders hours after they had questioned the status of Mr George Fernandes as a member of the party and also attacked Mr Nitish Kumar for “obstructing” the Samata-JD(U) unity.

General Secretary Ramesh Prasad Singh, Samata Seva Dal chief H.P. Singh and party’s Policy and Programme Committee Chairman Prem Kumar Mani have been removed from their positions and suspended, Samata Party General Secretary Jaya Jaitly said in a statement here.

A show-cause notice has also been issued to the trio asking them to explain their “anti-party conduct, especially since they were fully supportive party to all decisions taken by the National Executive and the National Council on January 6”, regarding the issue of merger of the Samata and the JD(U), the statement said.

Earlier, at a press conference, the three leaders gave a new twist to the ongoing controversy by asserting that Mr Fernandes ceased to be a member of the party as he fought the Lok Sabha elections on the JD(U) symbol and attacked Mr Kumar for trying to break away from the Samata-JD(U) front.